Tuesday, June 11, 1996

Lawmakers reworking handgun permit requirements

By MICHELLE KOIDIN
Associated Press

HOUSTON - The Senate Committee on Criminal Justice met in Houston Monday to hear suggestions from law enforcement officers and the public on improving Texas' 5-month-old concealed handgun law.

Members of the committee convened away from Austin and between sessions of the Legislature to try to clear up confusion over some parts of the measure.

Sen. John Whitmire, the committee's chairman, urged speakers in the packed Houston city council chambers to talk about the implementation of the law, not argue its merits.

"We're all Texans," said Whitmire, D-Houston. "There's no home team or visiting team here today."

Possible changes discussed included developing a way to check the mental health histories of those applying to carry concealed weapons and altering the law's language to clarify where guns are forbidden.

Col. James R. Wilson, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the agency has run mental health background checks on less than 1 percent of the 83,158 Texans who applied for a license as of last Wednesday.

He attributed the low figure to rules regarding confidentiality, and said officials only can look into a history of mental illness if it is public record.

"I think psychiatric care is an issue we need to work harder on," Whitmire said.

Harris County District Attorney Johnny Holmes said lawmakers should look at the issue of guns and parks. He said cities can't prohibit guns from their parks, but there is no such rule for counties.

Sen. Jerry Patterson, the concealed gun law's chief author, said it was an oversight.

Holmes said the state shouldn't allow every governmental body to create its own rules.

"It ought to be your decision or the courts' decision," he told the legislators.

Holmes questioned why license holders in Houston can't carry handguns in some government buildings but can in front of his home.

"Either you can do it or you can't," he said.

Holmes said he hasn't prosecuted anyone under the new law. He and Wilson both said they've been surprised at how responsibly permit-holders have behaved.

According to the DPS, 66,775 licenses have been issued since the law went into effect Jan. 1. Only 97 applications have been denied, and several thousand are pending.

Wilson said his agency is working to overcome a backlog of applications, some of which are taking longer than 90 days to process.

While the state comptroller estimated there would be 76,632 applications sent in during the first fiscal year, that figure was surpassed on May 8, the DPS noted.

"Our response has been significantly greater than other states," Wilson said.

Two people have been fatally shot by concealed handgun license holders, he said. In one case, a grand jury declined to indict, and the other is pending.

There have been two suicides and 11 arrests, Wilson said.

A total of 51 shots have been fired by license-holding Texans, but 40 of those were by one person.

Dave Smith, president of the Houston chapter of Texans Against Gun Violence, called for a repeal of the law. He said he showed up at the hearing to "make a bad bill less bad."