Court Backs Texas Activist Who Challenged County Gun Ban

[OFFascist]

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-st...-texas-activist-who-challenged-county-gun-ban

I'm hoping a better article will come out soon with more details.

IIRC The AG stated opinion was that multipurpose courthouses couldn't ban carrying throughout the building just in courtrooms or the secured areas that house them. A county filed a lawsuit and of course an anti-gun judge said I don't want guns in my courthouse. Looks like that might be overturned now.

 

[Big Green]

We had something similar in Brazos County the other year. County was challenged and Paxton said they didn't have the authority. I thought the sign was going to come down but finally the county "won".

 

[OFFascist]

Here is an article with some background on this case.
https://www.texastribune.org/2016/08/30/paxton-sues-waller-county-over-sign-banning-handgu/

The Waller County issue began when Terry Holcomb Sr. saw a sign in May prohibiting guns at the courthouse.
...
"Some of them agreed with me. Some of them didn't," Holcomb said. "The ones that didn't agree with me said 'you know, we'll just let the process play out.' And that was no problem. Absolutely the right way to handle it. Well, Waller County, when they got my letter, decided that they were going to sue a citizen."

Holcomb, a resident of San Jacinto County, said that after he filed a complaint with Paxton's office, Waller County sued in an attempt to bully him. Holcomb said his fight is more about the First Amendment than the Second Amendment.

"Regardless of where we sit on the gun issue, it's good that we can agree and disagree on this issue," he said. "And it's good that the courts have a venue to handle these type of legal battles, but to sue a citizen, the repercussions of that are far reaching."

From what I've read elsewhere the county sued this guy to get the issue in front of a favorable judge quickly and have the judge declare that their gun ban was legal and set some precedent. This is now thrown out on appeals the other lawsuits are going forward.

https://www.texasattorneygeneral.go...st-waller-county-in-retaliatory-open-carry-la

Attorney General Ken Paxton today applauded the First Court of Appeals of Texas after it ruled that Waller County lacks jurisdiction to sue a private citizen who complained that the county was unlawfully banning firearms from its government building. The attorney general’s office filed a brief in the case, arguing that it should be dismissed.

In reversing a Waller County district court’s ruling, the Court of Appeals held that Terry Holcomb Sr. had a constitutional right to send a letter to Waller County asking it to comply with Texas’ open carry laws without fear of a retaliatory and meritless lawsuit. “The Attorney General alone has the authority to investigate an alleged violation and decide if it merits further action,” the opinion stated.

“This is a great day for the First Amendment and the right of citizens to participate in government,” Attorney General Paxton said. “Waller County should be embarrassed and ashamed of using litigation as a tool to silence someone who merely called on it to stop violating a state law.”

Based on Holcomb’s complaint, Attorney General Paxton filed his own lawsuit against Waller County in August 2016 to bring the county into compliance with the state’s licensed carry laws. The lawsuit, if successful, will require the county to allow citizens to lawfully carry firearms in areas of the Waller County government building that contain non-judicial county administrative offices.