I've been carrying concealed for nearly 10 years, but I don't do a lot of traveling. I've gone around the Gulf Coast with my CCW a decent bit, but generally it is in circumstances were I don't have to be concerned with the finer points of the law (things like camping trips where I won't be going into any prohibited locations, or beach trips where I generally will be spending most of my time swimming and drinking, and thus not carrying anyway). If I take a plane anywhere, I don't bother bringing my gun, and just try to stay safe in other ways. This has not really been an issue for me, though, as when I travel by air it is usually to a place where I won't be able to carry (or mostly won't) anyway.But this weekend, I was going to Houston to visit some friends and go to the Renaissance Festival. The only other time I've been to Texas with my CCW was for a canoe trip in the woods, so this would be the first time I would have to be worried about going in and out of different establishments that may or may not have signs of one sort or another.Preparing for the trip, I brushed up on the Texas rules. The prohibited location lists are pretty similar for Texas and Louisiana, so the main difference that I was faced with is signage. I know that, as a sub, we LOVE debating signs. Well, in both LA and TX, signs do have the force of law, but the sign requirements are different.I'm not 100% sure which I like better between TX and LA. TX law puts more of a premium on signs, which means you see more of them. However, TX law is much clearer on what the signs need to look like/say, so it is much easier to actually know whether a place is prohibited or not than in LA, especially when dealing with bars.Louisiana's rule on bars is confusing to most people that I've met, even other lawyers who should know better. I hear people saying anything from "can't carry if any alcohol is sold period" (not true) to "any place that sells 51% or more alcohol" (also not true - this is the TX rule). The LA rule is that you can't carry in "Any portion of the permitted area of an establishment that has been granted a Class A-General retail permit, as defined in Part II of Chapter 1 or Part II of Chapter 2 of Title 26 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950, to sell alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises." This requires looking beyond the CCW statute to the Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) statute. A class A-General permit under our ABC law is defined in RS 26:71.1, and the most important thing to take from that statute for our purposes is "A Class A-General retail permit shall be issued only to an establishment where the state law provides that no person under the age of eighteen years is allowed on the premises." So, the easiest way to determine if you can't carry is whether or not minors are allowed on the premises. This is usually clearly marked with signs as well. There are other types of ABC permits, like Class A-Restaurant, Class C, and Class R, among other details, but the CCW statute only (and specifically) says "Class A-General," which is generally "real bars," not restaurants with bars inside, etc.HOWEVER, There was also some bullshit previously where the CCW permit didn't list anything but Class A-General places as prohibited, but the illegal carrying of weapons statute said it was illegal (RS 14:95.5). So the laws were in direct conflict. One would assume that having a permit would exempt you from all illegal carrying of weapons laws except as provided in the CCW statute, but the illegal carrying of weapons statute was changed in 2014 to exempt people carrying in places with Class A-Restaurant permits. However, this still leaves some uncertainty about the other type of ABC permits (which are less common), especially as this change implies that a CCW permit never exempted you from 14:95.5 in the first place. I'm not sure if they expect people to go into the place and then look at their ABC permit (which is supposed to be posted somewhere), to determine if they can go in there (essentially, you have to go in to find out if you can go in)?So as you can tell, this law is fucking confusing. The laws conflict/are inconsistent with themselves. Not as confusing as when people think we have the 51% rule, because I don't know how you would even be expected to know that short of asking to examine the profit and loss statements of the business. Texas has the 51% rule, BUT they also require that those places post signs which are clearly visible. I saw plenty of them when I was in Texas. So I kind of like the TX rule better, as it is much clearer to the carrier when a place is OK or not. The only thing that I don't like about the TX rule is that the penalty for violating that statute is much more severe than in Louisiana. However, this isn't necessarily a huge concern, because at least you have an easier time knowing if you're breaking the law than you do in Louisiana.So on the whole, as much as this sub hates signs, I personally like the TX emphasis on signs as opposed to the LA requirement that the permit holder figure out these weird nuances of the law somehow on their own. The signs make things clear at least.But there was one thing about the TX signs that was really aggravating to me. Since TX changed the law regarding open carry, now they have 30.07 signs prohibiting open carry in addition to the 30.06 signs prohibiting concealed carry. While I like that the signs are standardized and impossible to miss (places in Louisiana sometimes use tiny stickers at like the bottom or the door), I really don't like that the 30.06 and 30.07 signs look basically identical. The first place I stopped in Texas (gas station) made me think I was going to have to go back to the car and stow my gun just to pee and buy a bottle of water, before I read the entire sign and realized it was a 30.07 sign that only applied to open carry. There were several times when I approached the entrance to a place and had to read the fine print of the sign to figure out if it was a 06 or 07. This is pretty annoying. I get that some places might want to ban OC and allow CCW, but I would almost prefer an "all or nothing" type rule where any sign means no gun, just so you don't have to stand there reading the fucking signs to see what it says. That makes it pretty obvious your packing IMO. I'm sure if I lived in TX I'd get pretty accustomed to spotting the differences, but as a traveler it was pretty aggravating.On the whole, from a reciprocity standpoint, I think it is easier to travel from LA to TX than the other way around. I've been carrying in LA for almost 10 years, and I'm an attorney (though I've only been making this very deep study of our CCW law more recently, getting more confused as I go), and I'm still not 100% sure on the exact details of our laws. via /r/CCW http://ift.tt/2eUEU2S
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