Early Attempts

The first public carry laws that we might recognize as familiar today tended to be enacted between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. Handgun licensing laws first came to be in states like New York during the Progressive Era. Comprehensive carry restrictions reached Texas in the early 1870s. In the 1830s to 1860s, many states passed their first concealed weapons regulations. This century-long wave of lawmaking might make it seem like public carry laws did not exist prior to that time; but this would be a mistake. The statutes that came into existence during this time grew out of a long history of governmental authority to regulate weapons in the public sphere. Charged with protecting people and property, and preserving the peace, governments have always had a stake in limiting the presence of deadly weapons in the community.

In Texas, early efforts to restrict weapons in public took several forms. One was a prohibition against dueling, which was enacted even before Texas joined the United States in 1845. Another was a curious and complicated law which held that anyone who committed a homicide with a bowie knife would be prosecuted for murder—even if the circumstances of the death made it a case of manslaughter. The purpose of this statute was to discourage Texans from carrying their knives in public, and particularly to make them think twice before pulling one out during a fight.

The bills explored in the following pages form an important part of the evolution from earlier statutes like these to the public carry laws that stayed on the books for more than a century.