51% Rule

[Diode]

Note that if the place fails to post the sign and is a 51% place you have no defense to carrying there. By the same token, if they post it and are not a 51% place, and you carry anyway you are OK.

The sign is advisory in nature.

Whoah! Nelly.... So what your saying is the Hooters in Humble could very well could be a 51% place but not posted and I am suposed to be able to know that? It is clearly not a bar,,, they sell food of all sorts how am I to tell 51% of their business is food or booze?

Thats the quandry!

Nowhere in the law does it exempt a person if there was no sign posted.

So the point of the sign is moot.... argh! Law sucks! Hey Charles will you add that to your list? Thanks TX,

[Charles L. Cotton]

Note that if the place fails to post the sign and is a 51% place you have no defense to carrying there. By the same token, if they post it and are not a 51% place, and you carry anyway you are OK.

The sign is advisory in nature.

Whoah! Nelly.... So what your saying is the Hooters in Humble could very well could be a 51% place but not posted and I am suposed to be able to know that? It is clearly not a bar,,, they sell food of all sorts how am I to tell 51% of their business is food or booze?

Thats the quandry!

Nowhere in the law does it exempt a person if there was no sign posted.

So the point of the sign is moot.... argh! Law sucks! Hey Charles will you add that to your list? Thanks TX,

Yep, that's exactly right. Former Harris County DA Johnny Holmes testified during an interim study in Houston in 1996. In addition to other testimony very supportive of CHL holders, he pointed out that the legislature should make the lack of a 51% sign an affirmative defense to a charge of carrying a handgun in a 51% location. Obviously, nothing was ever done.

It's on the TO-DO List, but there are a lot of things on it and only so much time to get them done. I honestly don't know what the priority rating will be for this issue, at least this session.

Not that this makes the situation any more tolerable, but the lack of a 51% sign may well make it more difficult for the State to prove the required mens rea (mental state). Every CHL holder has taken a DPS-created, statutorily required course that teaches that State law requires 51% locations to post a 51% sign. A good argument could be made that a defendant was relying upon that training and didn’t “intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly� enter a 51% location. If you walk into a "biker bar" don't even bother trying this defense!

Chas.

[cyphur]

Common sense can take you a long ways, but this seems like its just one of those "play it safe or guess right" type of deals?

That pretty much it for now?

[RPBrown]

One good thing about living in Irving is you will never see a 51% sign here. In order for a place to sell alcohol, they have to recieve special zoning, They also must adhere to a 60/40 law which means they must derive 60% or more of their business from food sales. Failure to do so means they can lose their zoning and there-by lose their TABC license.

[Diode]

Common sense can take you a long ways, but this seems like its just one of those "play it safe or guess right" type of deals?

That pretty much it for now?

True, most places should be easy to tell if it's a bar or not. Some not so easy.