Bill Text: TX HB2269 | 2015-2016 | 84th Legislature | Comm Sub
Bill Title: Relating to the unlawful seizure of a firearm by a governmental officer or employee; creating an offense.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 1)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2015-05-13 - Placed on General State Calendar [HB2269 Detail]
Download: Texas-2015-HB2269-Comm_Sub.html
| 84R20440 KEL-D | |||
| By: Metcalf | H.B. No. 2269 | ||
| Substitute the following for H.B. No. 2269: | |||
| By: Phillips | C.S.H.B. No. 2269 | ||
|
|
||
|
|
||
| relating to the unlawful seizure of a firearm by a governmental | ||
| officer or employee; creating an offense. | ||
| BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: | ||
| SECTION 1. Chapter 46, Penal Code, is amended by adding | ||
| Section 46.16 to read as follows: | ||
| Sec. 46.16. UNLAWFUL SEIZURE OF FIREARM. (a) A person who | ||
| is an officer or employee of the United States, this state, or a | ||
| political subdivision of this state commits an offense if the | ||
| person, while acting under color of the person's office or | ||
| employment, intentionally or knowingly seizes a firearm as | ||
| permitted or required by a federal statute, order, rule, or | ||
| regulation that imposes a prohibition, restriction, or other | ||
| regulation on firearms that does not exist under the laws of this | ||
| state. | ||
| (b) For purposes of this section, a person acts under color | ||
| of the person's office or employment if the person acts or purports | ||
| to act in an official capacity or takes advantage of such actual or | ||
| purported capacity. | ||
| (c) An offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor. | ||
| (d) It is an exception to the application of this section | ||
| that the person's seizure of a firearm was consistent with an | ||
| explicit and applicable grant of federal statutory authority that | ||
| is consistent with the United States Constitution. | ||
| (e) The prosecution may negate the existence of the | ||
| exception provided by Subsection (d) only by proving beyond a | ||
| reasonable doubt that, based on a decision entered by the United | ||
| States Supreme Court on or after September 1, 2015, the federal | ||
| statute, order, rule, or regulation described by Subsection (a) is | ||
| not within the scope of federal powers conferred by the United | ||
| States Constitution. | ||
| SECTION 2. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives | ||
| a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as | ||
| provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this | ||
| Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this | ||
| Act takes effect September 1, 2015. | ||
