Senator <name>,

I am writing to you about HB1935, referred to your committee from the House.  This bill was originally intended to be a simple repeal of Texas' prohibition on knives deemed "illegal knives", specifically those with blades longer than 5.5 inches, swords, spears, or the poorly defined terms "dagger" and "bowie knife."  Repealing this outdated section of law has been a priority for knife-rights groups for many years, and remains an important goal in broadening Texas freedoms.  

However, I am very concerned by the amendment added to HB1935 by Representative Dutton in the House.  The amendment made this simple bill unnecessarily convoluted and created new offenses that could have broad unintended and undesirable consequences.  

These are a couple of the major issues with this bill as referred from the House:

1) The amendment adds prohibitions to 46.03 on possessing a "location-restricted knife" (a blade longer than 5.5 inches) in a list of places that mirror the places handguns are prohibited in 46.035.  This prohibited places list should not exist at all, but by choosing to add this prohibition to 46.03 instead of 46.02 or 46.035, the amendment does two undesirable things;

 - 1st, it sidesteps the non-applicability section 46.15(b)(6) that generally exempts holders of a License To Carry a Handgun from 46.02.  This has always been a key aspect of the carrying of large knives, reflecting the reasonable idea that if a person is able to legally carry a handgun, they should also be able to legally carry a knife, regardless of blade length.  This is how 46.02 and 46.15 currently operate, but this bill would break that logical tie.  

 - 2nd, the list of prohibited places in the amendment does NOT have an exemption similar to 46.035(i), which excludes from the prohibited places list amusement parks, hospitals, and churches which are not posted under sections 30.06 or 30.07.  The result is a trap where a person legally carrying a handgun in these locations cannot also carry a large knife, despite it being legal to carry both items elsewhere.  This would be most common in churches, which frequently do not post 30.06 or 30.07 signs.  I can't emphasize enough that THIS IS A NEW RESTRICTION THAT DOES NOT EXIST TODAY, and would make criminals out of otherwise law-abiding people who may not recognize this subtlety.  


2) The amendment creates a prohibition against minors (under 18) possessing a "location-restricted knife" unless on premises under his control or under direct supervision of a parent or legal guardian.  This provision would make it impossible for organizations like the Boy Scouts of America to teach safe usage of machetes or large knives for clearing brush, splitting wood, and other campcraft.  Likewise, teens who volunteer at church dinners or food pantries would be unable to use many common kitchen knives without becoming criminals.  This is a useless prohibition that does nothing to increase safety or prevent teen violence.  


HB1935 as referred is severely flawed and creates a convoluted web of new restrictions that undermine the original purpose of the bill, and create dangerous unintended traps for law-abiding good people.  I urge you to strip the bill of the Dutton amendment in committee and give the Senate a clean simple bill to repeal this useless section of Texas law.  Thank you for your consideration and dedication to Texas freedoms.