TexasCHLforum.com

I wish they had just limited reciprocity to people age 21 and over as did several other states. If you look at Ryan's reciprocity map, you'll see several states marked with "21" meaning they recognize our CHL issued to people who are 21 or older. We almost lost reciprocity with those states when Texas foolishly dropped the minimum age to 18. The only reason it didn't happen was because of the work of NRA lobbyists in those states.

Let's look at the numbers to see how many additional Texans were able to get a CHL as a result of the dropping of the minimum age. Below are listed the number of new CHLs issued to people age 18 to 20. I only listed the last three years because every 18 year old would be 21 in three years and would be eligible under the "old" law. Actually, these numbers are overstated because the new CHLs age 19 or 20 would have been eligible in only one or two more years.

2014 - 237
2013 - 185
2012 - 123
Total - 545 CHLs added over a three year period who were under age 21.

This is a great example of passing legislation that seems patriotic without factoring in the true impact on all Texans, including hundreds of thousands of veterans who are over 21 and hold a CHL. So the bottom line currently is 850,000+ Texas CHLs cannot carry self-defense handguns in MN so 545 people under age 21 can have a license.

Now that one state had deviated from the policy of recognizing Texas CHLs issued only to people age 21 and over, other states may follow MN's lead. This is especially true with states that only recently passed concealed-carry.

Chas.