Recently, the Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) adopted what can only be described as model state agency policy for employees and visitors who wish to carry firearms. The new policy which was drafted and proposed by Commissioner Barry Smitherman was approved by the RRC on November 8 and took effect immediately.
The revised policy allows employees and visitors who are Concealed Handgun Licensees (CHLs) to carry their legally possessed handgun in Commission parking lots and buildings. This new policy further allows employees who are CHLs to carry their handgun in a Commission vehicle while on the job. Lastly, this policy also allows an employee or visitor to keep any lawfully possessed firearm in their personal vehicle while parked on Commission property. Commissioner Smitherman was inspired in part by a similar permissive policy which has been in effect at the General Land Office since Commissioner Jerry Patterson (author of Texas’s Right-to-Carry Law) took the helm.
This policy goes above and beyond what recently enacted Senate Bill 321 requires of any public or private employer. It is the hope of the NRA that many more state agencies will consider and adopt policies like the Texas Railroad Commission’s.
On behalf of our members, the NRA would like to thank Commissioner Barry Smitherman for initiating this policy discussion and seeing it through to passage by the full Commission.
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