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That is certainly my understanding of the law, 03LightningRocks.

PSLOwner wrote:

boomerang wrote:

MojoTexas wrote:reckless "printing" is a crime

Please cite that law.

I remember them telling us that in our CHL class, but darned if I can find in online via google. But that is my recollection as well.

They told you wrong. Reckless is not a crime, only intentional is.

Sec. 46.035. UNLAWFUL CARRYING OF HANDGUN BY LICENSE HOLDER. (a) A license holder commits an offense if the license holder carries a handgun on or about the license holder's person under the authority of Subchapter H, Chapter 411, Government Code, and intentionally fails to conceal the handgun.

To get the printing as a crime, it is really a matter of how well the weapon prints. If it is just a slight bulge, I would say it is not a crime. If you are wearing spandex and it shows the exact outline of the weapon, I would say it is a crime. The reason I say this is that I cannot find a definition of conceal in the law (just a quick search so far0, so we have to use the common meaning. One dictionary i looked at defined it this way:

To keep from being seen, found, observed, or discovered; hide.

So, if the exact outline can be seen, I would say it can be observed or discovered and is not concealed. A slight bulge could be anything and is still concealed, in my opinion. The line is going to fall somewhere in between the two, and I cannot give a specific definition for it. Like other SCOTUS rulings, I will know it when I see it.

Obviously, what is concealed and where printing falls in the scheme of things is a matter for you, the cop, the judge, or the jury to decide. Some of us will disagree on where things fall on that line.


EDIT: I don't know why I did not think of this earlier, but the definition of concealed handgun is in the Government Code subchapter on CHLs. It clearly defines it as not openly discernible to ordinary observation. This goes right with what I was saying about the slight bulge versus the exact outline print. The outline that is clear enough to see is openly discernible while the slight bulge is not.