AUSTIN – Texas municipalities do not have the authority to regulate firearm and ammunition sales through zoning and other regulations, Attorney General Ken Paxton said in an opinion issued May 24.
Paxton’s five-page opinion was in response to correspondence from Rep. Donna Campbell (R-San Antonio), who asserted "some Texas cities have begun pursuing gun-control measures that regulate firearms and ammunition sales in ways that seem likely to impinge upon the individual freedoms of Texas citizens."
Campbell’s letter, written Feb. 4, asked “whether Section 229.001 of the Local Government Code preempts a city from enacting regulations that (1) prohibit firearm and ammunition sales within 1,000 feet of any school or church; (2) restrict the location of a business that sells guns or ammunition to the highest-density commercial areas; and (3) prohibit ‘gun shops’ from locating within 200 feet of schools, public parks or places of worship.”
According to the opinion, the subsection prohibits a municipality from regulating “the transfer, private ownership, keeping, transportation, licensing, or registration of firearms, air guns, knives, ammunition, or firearm or air gun supplies.”
It added that a regulation expressly prohibiting gun stores from operating in a specific area relates to the transfer of firearms and is prohibited by the subsection.
“Similarly, an ordinance singling out firearm and ammunition sales relates to the transfer of firearms and is therefore prohibited,” Paxton said.
The attorney general said he might enforce a violation of section 229.001.
“Any plaintiff with standing under the Texas Constitution or the U.S. Constitution could bring an action seeking declaratory or injunctive relief against enforcement of an unconstitutional ordinance,” he wrote. “Individual city council members who voted on a zoning provision that is ultimately found to violate Section 229.001 or the Texas or the U.S. Constitution would likely be immune from personal liability.”