It kinda sort depends on your behavior, doesn't it. If you walk into an unposted eatery with a bar, open carrying, and instead of choosing a table and sitting down, you belly up to the bar and start ordering beer after beer after beer, I'm pretty sure of where you'll be spending the night.texasjeep44 wrote:Keith B wrote:While you are technically correct, one thing to remember is this is a 'defense to prosecution', but not a guarantee you won't be prosecuted. For example, if the prosecutor can convince the Judge or Jury that you well knew it was a 51% location when you entered, even without the sign, then you could be in hot water and be convicted of carrying in a 51% establishment.
So, I would still be very cautious if you suspicion an establishment is 51% even without the sign unless you have proof it is not.
If the establishment isn't following the law by posting their business with a 51% sign how are you to know they are a bar? If I don't post a 30.06 sign or a no tresspassing sign, or a fence or a gate, or purple paint on my property how are you to know I don't want you there.
By the same reasoning the following section will be used by judges and prosecutors only if a business is not posted and somehow they get caught with a gun. Seems they would be better served by staying home instead of going someplace that sells alcohol.
I doubt very seriously that the prosecutor would pursue a case against an individual when the business is clearly in violoation of the state law by not having the proper signage up.(h-1) *[as added by Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., HB 2300.] It is a defense to
prosecution under Subsections (b)(1), (2), and (4)-(6), and (c) that at
the time of the commission of the offense, the actor was:
(1) a judge or justice of a federal court;
(2) an active judicial officer, as defined by Section 411.201,
Government Code; or
(3) a district attorney, assistant district attorney, criminal district
attorney, assistant criminal district attorney, county attorney, or assistant
county attorney.
ALSO, once you see the red 51% sign, it is on YOU to leave immediately. This happened to me once. I walked into what appeared to be a restaurant, which was kind of small, and sat down at a table to order. As I craned my head around to take in the surroundings, I saw the red sign on the wall over the bar, posted kind of up in a corner near the ceiling where it wasn't readily apparent. I paid for my iced tea and left. Had I stayed, once I saw the sign, I would have been in violation.