Military Discharge Status and Obtaining a CHL

[namronba]

I recieved a General under Other Than Honorable Discharge from the Army in 1989. NO I AM NOT PROUD OF IT. That is not what is in question.
I made a huge mistake in trying to preserve an already failed marriage and ended up with this discharge and a divorce anyway.
My question is this. I am not trying to claim the veteran status for a discount, and I can't find anything that says that this dicharge is a disqualifier, so meeting all other requirements, am I eligable for a CHL.

[jgp]

I don't recall that mentioned in the eligibility requirements, as long as you were not convicted of a felony and are legally able to purchase a handgun in that you pass the NICS check.

[namronba]

That is what I thought too. But, I wanted to get some clarification before spending the money since it is not the cheapest thing in the world to get. And, yes I am eligible to purchase and have purchased "legally" in the last year. Thanks for you input.

[Dragonfighter]

IIRC, dishonorable discharge will get you, not general...I believe that is the way it's worded on the app. Crimes, family violence, felonies, etc. will get you. I would advise not querying too much, if you can qualify by answering the questions honestly then going into more detail will do nothing but cloud the issue.

[joe817]

namronba, welcome to the forum. There's a whole lot of information at your fingertips regarding CHL.

Eligibility is found in the Government Code, GC 411.172 Eligibility. I won't copy/paste here but you can find it in the CHL Handbook on line:

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/ftp/forms/LS-16.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's on P. 4 of the Handbook, or on p.10 of the pdf file.

I hope that helps.

[Kythas]

You should check with the VA or your service branch regarding your discharge status. In some cases, a General discharge will convert to Honorable automatically after a certain time period. You could also petition the service branch you were in to convert it to Honorable, also.

[ScottDLS]

I recieved a General under Other Than Honorable Discharge from the Army in 1989. NO I AM NOT PROUD OF IT. That is not what is in question.
I made a huge mistake in trying to preserve an already failed marriage and ended up with this discharge and a divorce anyway.
My question is this. I am not trying to claim the veteran status for a discount, and I can't find anything that says that this dicharge is a disqualifier, so meeting all other requirements, am I eligable for a CHL.

This is an "administrative" and and not punitive discharge. It does bar some Veteran's benefits, etc. and doesn't necessarily reflect well on your service, but that isn't really for me or anyone else here to judge. You must be convicted of a crime under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) to get a "Bad Conduct Discharge" and this is still only a (federal) misdemeanor. You must be convicted of (federal) felony under the UCMJ to get a Dishonorable Discharge. My understanding is that Texas law only bars Dishonorably Discharged from CHL. You'd be federally barred anyway. But you're not.

So go get a CHL.