Texas
Permanent URL for this collectionhttps://dspace.firearmsresearchcenter.org/id/frc0001/5379
Texas
This jurisdictional hub aggregates FRC holdings related to Texas. It supports research on the state’s firearms history, technology, law, policy, and culture from Spanish and Mexican periods through the Republic of Texas, statehood, and the present.
- Legal sources: statutes and session laws, administrative code, attorney general opinions, appellate decisions, and select municipal ordinances.
- Historical materials: newspapers, photographs, maps, catalogs, frontier and ranger records, ranching and oil-and-gas archives, border and military collections, and oral histories tied to Texas people and places.
- Research outputs: technical reports, academic studies, training manuals, and curated datasets relevant to the state.
Cite the Firearms Research Center and the item’s handle/DOI when using materials. Rights and licensing vary by item.
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Item type:Item, Revised Code of Ordinances of the City of McKinney 6 (1899)(1899)Prohibited the public discharge of firearms in McKinney.Item type:Item, Tex. Const., Art. I, § 13(1845)Declared every citizen "shall have the right to keep and bear arms in the lawful defence of himself and the State"Item type:Item, Theodore Harris, Charter and Ordinances of the City of San Antonio 220 (1899)(1899)Ordinances of the City of San Antonio, Ordinances, ch. 22, § 4: Prohibited drawing in a threatening manner a pistol, gun, knife, sword cane, club or any other instrument or weapon that may cause death.Item type:Item, 1836 Tex. Gen. Laws 54-55, An Act to Provide for the National Defense by Organizing the Militia, § 1.(1836)That every citizen so enrolled and notified, shall within ten days thereafter provide himself with a good musket, a sufficient bayonet and belt, six flints, knapsack and cartridge box, with twenty-four suitable ball cartridgesItem type:Item, 1839 Tex. Gen. Laws, at 172(1839)An Act Concerning Slaves, § 6: Prohibited any "slave" from carrying firearms or weapons without the consent of his master.Item type:Item, 1839 Tex. Gen. Laws, at 214(1839)An Act To Incorporate The City Of Austin, § 7: That the Mayor and Counsel shall have full power and authority ... to prevent gunpowder being stored within the city and suburbs in such quantities as to endanger the public safety. . .Item type:Item, Revised Ordinances of the City of Victoria, Texas 75 (1899)(1899)Revised Penal Ordinances: Discharging Firearms, § 1: If any person shall discharge any gun, pistol or firearm of any description on or across any public square, street or alley, or elsewhere within the corporate limits of the City of Victoria, whether the premises on or across which such fire arm is discharged be public or private he shall be fined in any sum not to exceed ten dollars.Item type:Item, 1871 Tex. Gen. Laws 14(1871)An Act To Incorporate The Town Of Millican, County of Brazos, Art. 10: That from and after the passage of this act it shall be unlawful to fire any pistol, rifle, shot gun, or other kind of firearms, within the limits of the town of Millican, and any person violating this act shall be fined not less than five nor more then twenty-five dollars...Item type:Item, Theodore Harris, Charter and Ordinances of the City of San Antonio 183-84 (1899)(1899)Banned carrying concealed or personal weapons within city limits by imposing a $25 to $200 fine, but exempted military and militia personnel, law enforcement, travelers, individuals on their own property, and those facing imminent, unlawful attacks.Item type:Item, 1901 Tex. Gen. Laws 53-54(1901)Special Session, An Act to Incorporate the City of Fort Worth and to Grant a New Charter to Said City, Ch. 7, § 140: The city council shall also have and possess the following express powers. . . To prohibit and restrain, or to regulate the firing of firecrackers, guns and pistols . . .Item type:Item, Revised Ordinances of the City of Fort Worth, at 206(1873)An Ordinance in Regard to Carrying Deadly Weapons, § 1: That it shall be unlawful for any person to carry about his person any pistol, Bowie knife or other deadly or unlawful weapon while within the corporate limits of this cityItem type:Item, Revised Code of Ordinances of the City of McKinney 13 (1899)(1899)Ordinance No. 20: If any person in the limits of the city of McKinney shall carry on or about his person, saddle, or in his saddle bags, any pistol, dirk, dagger, slung-shot, sword-cane, spear or knuckles made of any metal or of any hard substance Bowie knife or any other knife manufactured or sold for the purposes of offense or defense, he shall be punished by fine not less than twenty-five nor more than two hundred dollars.Item type:Item, Charter and Revised Ordinances of the City of Galveston 94 (1873)(1872)Art. 418, § 26: Every keeper of a pistol or rifle gallery, a tax of twenty-five dollarsItem type:Item, Revised Code of Ordinances of the City of McKinney 16 (1899)(1899)Ordinance No. 26: Be it ordained by the city council of the city of McKinney: § 1. That it shall be unlawful for any person to fire or shoot any gun, pistol, firecracker or any kind of fireworks or pyrotechnics in the corporate limits of the city of McKinneyItem type:Item, Revised Code of Ordinances of the City of McKinney 5 (1899)(1899)Ordinances of the City of McKinney, Disturbance of the Peace, § 1: That if any person shall go into or near any public place, or into or near any private house and shall use loud and vociferous or obscene, vulgar or indecent language or swear or curse, or yell or shriek or expose his person or rudely display any pistol or other deadly weapon in a manner calculated to disturb the inhabitants of such public place or private house, he shall be fined in any sum not exceeding one hundred dollars.Item type:Item, Revised Code of Ordinances of the City of McKinney 40 (1899)(1899)That it shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to have or keep stored within the limits of the city of McKinney, at any one time, more than four kegs either of blasting powder or gun powder nor a greater amount of any other high explosive than is reasonably necessary for one day's business and none of the same shall be kept within the corporate limits of the city of McKinney for wholesale purposes at all.Item type:Item, An Ordinance Prohibiting the Unlawful Carrying of Arms, in Daily Democratic Statesman, May 29, 1880, at 4(1880)§§ 1-2: Prohibited the carry on or about his person, saddle, or saddle bags in the city hall any pistol, dirk, dagger, slung-shot, sword-cane, spear, brass knuckles, Bowie-knife, or other kind of knife manufactured or sold for purposes of offense or defense.Item type:Item, Ordinances of the Council of the City of Dallas 80 (1888)(1887)An Ordinance Prohibiting and Punishing the Unlawful Carrying of Arms, § 1: Be it ordained by the City Council of the City of Dallas, that if any person in the City of Dallas shall carry on or about his person, saddle, or in his saddle-bags, any pistol, dirk, dagger, slungshot, sword- cane, spear, or knuckles made of any metal or hard substance, bowie knife, or any other kind of knife manufactured or sold for purposes of offense or defense, he shall be punished by fine of not less than twenty-five nor more than two hundred dollars and shall be confined in the city prison not less than twenty nor more than sixty days.Item type:Item, 1901 Texas Spec. Laws 74(1901)§§ 169–170: The city council may also regulate or prohibit and prevent the carrying on of work and manufactures that are dangerous in promoting or causing fires, and may prohibit the building or erection of cotton presses and sheds, or may restrict the same to such limits as are prescribed by ordinance; and may regulate or prohibit and prevent the use of fireworks and firearms, or the keeping and management of houses or other structures or places for storing gunpowder, dynamite, or other combustible, explosive, or dangerous material or substances within the city, and may regulate the keeping and conveying of the same.Item type:Item, Charter of the City of Dallas, § 84, John F. Worley ed., 1899.(1899)The city council shall have full power and authority by ordinance to regulate, control and prohibit the carrying of firearms and other weapons within the city limits, and is hereby empowered to provide and inflict the same punishment therefor as is now or hereafter may be provided by the State law against persons unlawfully carrying weapons."Item type:Item, 1919 Tex. Gen. Laws, at 297-98(1919)An Act to Preserve, Propagate, Distribute, and Protect the Wild Game, Wild Birds, Wild Fowl of the State . . . , Ch. 157, § 42: It shall be unlawful for any citizen of this State to hunt outside of the county of his residence with a gun without first having procured from the Game, Fish and Oyster Commissioner or one of his deputies or from the County Clerk of the County in which he resides a license to hunt, and for which he shall pay to the officer from whom he secures such license the sum of two ($2.00) dollars. . . Any person hunting any game or birds protected by the laws of the State, and who shall refuse to show his license herein provided for to any sheriff . . . on demand shall be deemed guilty of a violation of the provisions of this law, and any person violating any of the provisions of this Section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be fined in a sum of not less than ten (10.00) dollars nor more than one hundred (100.00) dollars.Item type:Item, 1933 Tex. Gen. Laws 219-20(1933)1st Called Sess., An Act Defining "Machine Gun" and "Person"; Making It an Offense to Possess or Use Machine Guns. . . , Ch. 82, §§ 1-4, 6: Prohibited possession of a machine gun; punishable by imprisonment up to 10 years. Prohibited selling, leasing, giving, bartering, exchanging, or trading a machine gun; punishable by imprisonment for 2 months to 10 years.Item type:Item, An Ordinance Prohibiting the Unlawful Carrying of Arms, in Daily Democratic Statesman, May 29, 1880, at 4(1880)§ 3: Any person violating §§ 1-2 above may be arrested without a warrant, and any policeman who shall fail to or refuses to arrest such person on his own knowledge or upon information, shall be fined not exceeding one hundred dollars.Item type:Item, Willson's Criminal Statutes Art. 338(1897)"Arms.-If any person in this state shall carry on or about his person , saddle, or in his saddle bags , any pistol , dirk , dagger, slungshot , sword cane, spear, or knuckles made of any metal or any hard substance , bowie knife , or any other knife manufactured or sold for purposes of offense or defense , he shall be punished by fine of not less than twenty- five nor more than two hundred dollars ."Item type:Item, 1907 Tex. Gen. Laws 210(1907)An Act Defining "Burglary with Explosives," Prescribing Penalty for the Commission Thereof, and Declaring an Emergency, §§ 1-2: Any person who shall commit burglary as defined by the Penal Code of this State, and in the commission of the offense uses nitro-glycerine, dynamite, gunpowder or other high explosives, shall be deemed guilty of burglary with explosives.Item type:Item, 1898 Tex. Gen. Laws 234–35(1898)Ch. 118, Art. 10: That from and after the passage of this act it shall be unlawful to fire any pistol, rifle, shot gun, or other kind of fire-arms, within the limits of the town of Round Top, and any person violating this act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor,Item type:Item, 1909 Tex. Spec. Laws 270(1909)Ch. 7, § 18: Power to prevent and suppress riots, affrays, noise, breach of the peace, assaults, disturbances or disorderly assembly in any public or private place within the limits of said city, and to provide punishment therefor; to prohibit and restrain the firing of guns, and pistols in the city limits, and to prohibit and restrain the carrying of pistols.Item type:Item, 1901 Tex. Gen. Laws 300(1901)An Act to amend Article 336 Chapter 3, Title IX of the Penal Code of the State of Texas, relating to affrays and disturbance of the peace: If any person shall discharge any gun, pistol or firearms of any description, or shall discharge any cannon cracker or torpedo on or across any public square, street or alley in any city, town or village, or in any street, or within one hundred yards of any business house, in this State, he shall be fined in any sum not exceeding one hundred dollars.Item type:Item, 1897 Tex. Gen. Laws 221- 22(1897)Ch. 155, § 1: Prohibited the selling or giving to a minor a pistol, dirk, dagger, slungshot, sword cane, spear or knuckles made of any metal or hard substance, Bowie knife or any other knife manufactured or sold for the purpose of offense or defense without the consent of their parent or guardian. Punishable by fine of $25-200 and/or imprisonment for 10-30 days.Item type:Item, 1887 Tex. Gen. Laws 7(1887)Ch. 9, Art. 318: Prohibited any person from carrying on his person, saddle, or in his saddlebags, any pistol, dirk, dagger, slung shot, sword cane, spear, or knuckles made of any metal or any hard substance, Bowie knife, or any other kind of knife manufactured or sold for purposes of offense of defense.Item type:Item, 1889 Tex. Gen. Laws 33(1889)Tit. 9, Ch. 4, Art. 338: Prohibited any person from carrying any pistol, dirk, dagger, slung-shot, sword-cane, spear, or knuckles made of any metal or hard substance, Bowie knife, or any other knife manufactured or sold for purposes of offense or defense. Violators fined not less than twenty-five nor more than two hundred dollars, or imprisonment not less than ten nor more than thirty days, or both.Item type:Item, 1879 Tex. Penal Code, art. 163(1871)Tex. Act of Apr. 12, 1871, as codified in Tex. Penal Code (1879) Art. 163: Prohibited the carrying of a concealed or open gun, pistol, Bowie knife, or other dangerous weapon within a half mile of a polling site on an election day. Also prohibited generally carrying a pistol, dirk, dagger, slungshot, sword cane, spear, brass knuckles, Bowie knife, or other kind of knife used for offense or defense. Punishable by fine and forfeiture of the weapon.Item type:Item, Revised Ordinances of the City of Fort Worth, Texas, at 64-65(1880)An Ordinance prohibiting the shooting off, firing or discharging of Fire-arms; the firing, exploding or setting off of Squibs, Firecrackers, Torpedoes, Roman Candles, Sky-rockets or other things containing powder or other explosive matter, or the throwing of any fire balls, or making of any bon-fires in the corporate limits of the City of Fort Worth. Be it ordained by the City Council of the City of Fort Worth § 1: It shall be unlawful for any person or persons to shoot off, fire, or discharge any gun, pistol, revolver or any firearm of any description, or to fire, explode or set off any squib, firecracker, torpedo, roman candle, sky-rocket, or other thing containing powder or other explosive matter, or to throw any fire-ball or make any bon-fire in the corporate limits of this cityItem type:Item, Tex. Const. of 1876, Art. I, § 23(1876)Declared every citizen to have the right to bear arms in defense of themselves or the state, but the legislature shall have power to regulate the bearing of arms to prevent crime.Item type:Item, 1879 Tex. Penal Code Tit. IX(1879)Ch. 4, Art. 320: Prohibited carry of a pistol, other firearm, dirk, dagger, slung-shot, sword-cane, spear, brass-knuckles, bowie-knife, or any other kind of a knife manufactured and sold for the purposes of offense and defense into any church, religious assembly, school room, or other place where persons are assembled for amusement or for educational or scientific purposes, or into any circus, show, or public exhibition of any kind, or into a ball-room. Violators fined not less than fifty nor more than five hundred dollars and shall forfeit the weapon.Item type:Item, Revised Ordinances of the City of Fort Worth, Texas, at 207(1885)Ordinance no. 157, § 1: Any person carrying concealed on or about his person any pistol, dirk, dagger, slung shot, sword cane, spear, brass knuckles, Bowie knife, or any other kind of knife manufactured or sold for the purpose of offense or defense, unless having or carrying the same on or about his person for the lawful defense of the State as a militiaman, in actual service, or as a peace officer or policeman, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof, shall be punished by fine of not less than twenty-five nor more than one hundred dollars.Item type:Item, Revised Ordinances of the City of Fort Worth, Texas, at 113-14(1879)An Ordinance defining and punishing affrays and Disturbances of the Peace, § 2: If any person shall go into any public place, or into or near any private house, or along any public street or highway near any private house, and shall use loud and vociferous, or obscene, vulgar, or indecent language, or swear or curse, or expose his person, or rudely display any pistol or other deadly weapon in such public place, or upon such public street or highway, or near such private house, in a manner calculated to disturb the inhabitants thereof, he shall be fined in a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars.Item type:Item, 1889 Tex. Gen. Laws 36(1889)Malicious Mischief, Ch. 40, Art. 683b: That any person who shall willfully or maliciously throw a stone or other missile or fire a gun or pistol at or into any coach or passenger car of a moving railway train, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be fined in any sum of not less than twenty-five dollars and not more than one thousand dollars.Item type:Item, 1873 Tex. Gen. Laws 1322(1873)Prohibited entry into any church, religious assembly, school-room, or other place where persons are assembled for educational, literary, or scientific purposes, or into a ball room, social party, or other social gathering, composed of ladies and gentlemen, or to any election precinct on the day of an election, where people may be mustered for public duty or public assembly while armed with a Bowie-knife, dirk, butcher-knife, or any firearms known as a six-shooter, gun, or pistol of any kind. Violators guilty of a misdemeanor and fined not less than fifty nor more than five hundred dollars at the discretion of the court.Item type:Item, Tex. Act of April 12, 1871, Art. 320(1871)Tex. Act of April 12, 1871: Expands the places where carrying a weapon may be prohibited to include "places where persons are assembled for amusement [... including] any circus, show, or public exhibition of any kind [...]" — however, the law makes an exception "as may be required or permitted by law." Gun shows are permitted by law under CA Penal Code § 27300 et seq. The restrictions on general public carry may be overbroad and thus invalid in light of the Bruen decision.