Texas bill prohibiting guns at state psychiatric hospitals set for public hearing
AUSTIN — Texas' 10 state psychiatric hospitals may soon be allowed to return to their longstanding practice of banning guns on hospital property, thanks in large part to a bill from Rep. Andrew Murr that is scheduled for a committee hearing Tuesday.
"If historical practice has been to restrict weapons in a state hospital, then common sense would dictate that we should ensure they have that ability," Murr said in an interview last week. "I don't wait it to be a sensational topic. We treat it very seriously. It went to the public health committee, it did not go to homeland security. It's a mental health bill."
He said the measure would address an "inadvertent omission" in a law passed last year that beefed up enforcement of laws that allow people with gun licenses to carry weapons on state or local government property. The 2015 law allowed Texas to impose a fine on governmental entities that didn't allow guns to be carried on their property.
The law compelled the state's psychiatric hospitals last January to pull down signs that prohibited guns and start permitting people to bring handguns onto hospital property, even though health officials insisted the psychiatric hospitals could previously ban guns. The hospitals posted new signs that asked visitors to voluntarily leave guns in their vehicles.
Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/guns/2017/03/07/guns-state-hospitals-texas