House Panel to Weigh Private Property, Gun Rights

With the Legislature almost certain to loosen restrictions on how and where people can carry handguns this session, a House committee Tuesday will consider streamlining the process for businesses to ban guns on their private property.

House Bill 2405 by state Rep. Poncho Nevárez, D-Eagle Pass, would make it possible for any business owner with an internet connection and printer to obtain a “no guns” sign.

The bill creates a standard design for signs to ban handguns from a place of business — a “pictogram that shows, on a white background, a handgun drawn in black ink within a red circle and diagonal red line across the handgun” — and calls for a printable copy of the sign to be available on the Texas Department of Public Safety website.

The measure, set to be heard in the House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee, is a small counterpunch against legislation that passed the Senate last month that would allow gun owners with concealed handgun licenses to carry their weapons openly in public, and allow concealed handguns on college campuses. Similar bills were approved by the House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee last month and sent to the full House.

The prevalence of gun legislation this year has prompted business groups to weigh in on the controversial issue. The Texas Association of Business sent a letter last month to the House committee urging members to maintain the right of business owners to decide whether or not to allow guns on their property.

“TAB also opposes any attempts to require a business owner to provide additional notice [other] than stated in current law to exercise their rights to ban handguns from their place of business,” the letter said.

The debate over “no guns” signs revolves around competing Second Amendment and private property rights.

The House and Senate bills to allow concealed handguns on college campuses give private universities, like private businesses, the option to ban guns on their premises — a provision some say should apply to public institutions as well.

CJ Grisham, the founder of Open Carry Texas, said he plans to testify against Nevárez’s bill on Tuesday.

“It’s bad enough right now where the shop owners keep their signs,” Grisham said. “If they put them on, for example, a sliding door, a lot of people won’t see those.”

HB 2405 requires signs to be posted “at each exterior entrance” and “in a conspicuous manner clearly visible to the public.”

Grisham said he opposes providing printable signs on the DPS website.

“I don’t want my taxpayer money going to efforts that will keep me from exercising my rights,” he said.

Disclosure: The Texas Association of Business is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here.