Well, here we go again. Texas!
I really would suspect, the whole of Texas being considered, that there are/have always been a whole mess of folks with weapons of some breed in the glove compartment, permits(which are a relative new thing to this world-well, er, Texas) or no permits.
The law has always pretty well defined when and how folks could legally carry a weapon. straight line, over two counties, no side trips or stops.
Now the rub. The boys, in Texis (spelled as pronounced-by golly) have always taken a dim view of Austin telling them how to run their county/counties. The big towns were about the same but they have taken too being a little tighter on the reigns than other places.
Got a friend, down Corpus Christi way, in a county sheriff's department who has a gun, super .38, that was given to him by a nephew of George Parr (weapon was actually George's originally). Now this old boy was a convicted felon and he brought it to Bill, as a gift, in a paper sack laying on the back seat of the car. This deputy sheriff filed no paper on Mr. Parr's nephew, just took the weapon and thanked him. Weapon is very nice, has Mexican gold and silver grips on a light weight commander with some Mexican engraving. Weapon has been well shot, has George's initials on the grips.
I digress. It was a point of the conversation that this was very illegal and Bill's opinion that it was only illegal if you got caught. Really, the boys around here do not go looking if everything looks ok.
As a matter of fact, the reason the conversation came up, was because of a traffic stop the night of the conversation.
Bill's wife was driving their Suburban and we were following. We had been out to eat (is drinking needed to be explained also) at a resturant out of Robstown (a good atlas is needed to follow this story-find Corpus and look to the S/W.) on Baffin Bay. This area is heavily patrolled by the State Boys and Shriff's in the area due to Illegals traffic. Bill's wife was driving, that was good cause Bill was not in a condition, well, ya know. The stop was made because of the number of folks in the Suburban-We had about 15 folks in two vehicles-Suburban and Tahoe. Bills wife handed the Trooper her DL and CHL. The trooper asked if she had the weapon on her and she said NO but her husband had two. The Trooper asked if anyone else had a weapon and Bill's wife said she did not know. We had pulled to a stop when she was pulled over, he never came to our vehicle. He did say something about the reason he stopped her was because of the number of folks in the vehicle. He took a cursory look in the vehicle, meanwhile everbody was hiding the paper cups, said for her to be careful and try not to have so many people in the car the next time. Some of the folks in her car was pretty big folks and it was a tight fit for everyone. Trooper said thanks and go on home. He never did ask Bill for any ID.
All that to say this, things can be a little different here in Texas.
Blessings
