Bill Text: TX HB435 | 2025-2026 | 89th Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relating to prohibiting carrying a firearm while intoxicated; creating a criminal offense.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-11-12 - Filed [HB435 Detail]

Download: Texas-2025-HB435-Introduced.html

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89R2629 JSC-D
By: Rosenthal H.B. No. 435

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to prohibiting carrying a firearm while intoxicated;
creating a criminal offense.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Chapter 46, Penal Code, is amended by adding
Section 46.022 to read as follows:
Sec. 46.022. UNLAWFUL CARRYING OF FIREARM WHILE
INTOXICATED. (a) A person commits an offense if, while
intoxicated, the person carries on or about his or her person a
firearm, including a handgun or long gun, in a public place.
(b) An offense under this section is a Class C misdemeanor.
(c) This section does not apply to:
(1) a special investigator under Article 2A.002, Code
of Criminal Procedure, or a peace officer regardless of whether the
special investigator or peace officer is engaged in the actual
discharge of the investigator's or officer's duties while carrying
the firearm; or
(2) a person who carries a firearm that is unloaded and
encased in a container.
(d) It is not a defense to prosecution under this section
that the actor carried a handgun under the authority of Subchapter
H, Chapter 411, Government Code, or carried a firearm under another
law authorizing the carrying of that firearm by a person not
otherwise prohibited by state or federal law from carrying a
firearm.
(e) In this section, "intoxicated" has the meaning assigned
by Section 49.01.
(f) For purposes of this section, "public place" does not
include:
(1) the interior of a motor vehicle not used for mass
transit; or
(2) the actor's private residence, including the
curtilage of that residence.
SECTION 2. Section 125.0015(a), Civil Practice and Remedies
Code, is amended to read as follows:
(a) A person who maintains a place to which persons
habitually go for the following purposes and who knowingly
tolerates the activity and furthermore fails to make reasonable
attempts to abate the activity maintains a common nuisance:
(1) discharge of a firearm in a public place as
prohibited by the Penal Code;
(2) reckless discharge of a firearm as prohibited by
the Penal Code;
(3) engaging in organized criminal activity as a
member of a combination as prohibited by the Penal Code;
(4) delivery, possession, manufacture, or use of a
substance or other item in violation of Chapter 481, Health and
Safety Code;
(5) gambling, gambling promotion, or communicating
gambling information as prohibited by the Penal Code;
(6) prostitution as described by Section 43.02, Penal
Code, solicitation of prostitution as described by Section 43.021,
Penal Code, promotion of prostitution as described by Section
43.03, Penal Code, or aggravated promotion of prostitution as
described by Section 43.04, Penal Code;
(7) compelling prostitution as prohibited by the Penal
Code;
(8) commercial manufacture, commercial distribution,
or commercial exhibition of obscene material as prohibited by the
Penal Code;
(9) aggravated assault as described by Section 22.02,
Penal Code;
(10) sexual assault as described by Section 22.011,
Penal Code;
(11) aggravated sexual assault as described by Section
22.021, Penal Code;
(12) robbery as described by Section 29.02, Penal
Code;
(13) aggravated robbery as described by Section 29.03,
Penal Code;
(14) unlawfully carrying a weapon as described by
Section 46.02, Penal Code, or unlawfully carrying a firearm while
intoxicated as described by Section 46.022, Penal Code;
(15) murder as described by Section 19.02, Penal Code;
(16) capital murder as described by Section 19.03,
Penal Code;
(17) continuous sexual abuse of young child or
disabled individual as described by Section 21.02, Penal Code;
(18) massage therapy or other massage services in
violation of Chapter 455, Occupations Code;
(19) employing or entering into a contract for the
performance of work or the provision of a service with an individual
younger than 21 years of age for work or services performed at a
sexually oriented business as defined by Section 243.002, Local
Government Code;
(20) trafficking of persons as described by Section
20A.02, Penal Code;
(21) sexual conduct or performance by a child as
described by Section 43.25, Penal Code;
(22) employment harmful to a child as described by
Section 43.251, Penal Code;
(23) criminal trespass as described by Section 30.05,
Penal Code;
(24) disorderly conduct as described by Section 42.01,
Penal Code;
(25) arson as described by Section 28.02, Penal Code;
(26) criminal mischief as described by Section 28.03,
Penal Code, that causes a pecuniary loss of $500 or more;
(27) a graffiti offense in violation of Section 28.08,
Penal Code; or
(28) permitting an individual younger than 18 years of
age to enter the premises of a sexually oriented business as defined
by Section 243.002, Local Government Code.
SECTION 3. Section 9.31(b), Penal Code, is amended to read
as follows:
(b) The use of force against another is not justified:
(1) in response to verbal provocation alone;
(2) to resist an arrest or search that the actor knows
is being made by a peace officer, or by a person acting in a peace
officer's presence and at his direction, even though the arrest or
search is unlawful, unless the resistance is justified under
Subsection (c);
(3) if the actor consented to the exact force used or
attempted by the other;
(4) if the actor provoked the other's use or attempted
use of unlawful force, unless:
(A) the actor abandons the encounter, or clearly
communicates to the other his intent to do so reasonably believing
he cannot safely abandon the encounter; and
(B) the other nevertheless continues or attempts
to use unlawful force against the actor; or
(5) if the actor sought an explanation from or
discussion with the other person concerning the actor's differences
with the other person while the actor was:
(A) carrying a weapon in violation of Section
46.02; [or]
(B) carrying a firearm while intoxicated in
violation of Section 46.022; or
(C) possessing or transporting a weapon in
violation of Section 46.05.
SECTION 4. Section 46.02(a-6), Penal Code, is repealed.
SECTION 5. The change in law made by this Act applies only
to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act.
An offense committed before the effective date of this Act is
governed by the law in effect on the date the offense was committed,
and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose. For
purposes of this section, an offense was committed before the
effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurred
before that date.
SECTION 6. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.