What § 46.03 actually prohibits
Texas Penal Code § 46.03, "Places Weapons Prohibited," makes the location the crime. A licensed, sober, clean-record gun owner can commit a felony the moment a weapon enters a listed building — the offense turns almost entirely on where you were, not on how you carried or what you intended.
Texas Penal Code § 46.03, titled "Places Weapons Prohibited," makes the location the crime. You can be a law-abiding gun owner — licensed, sober, with a clean record — and still commit a felony the moment you carry a weapon into one of the buildings the statute names. The offense does not depend on how you were carrying or whether you meant any harm; it depends almost entirely on where you were. That is what makes a § 46.03 charge feel so unfair to the people who get arrested for it, and it is also why the defense is so fact-driven.
The statute reaches a firearm, an illegal knife, a location-restricted knife (a blade over 5.5 inches), a club, or any of the prohibited weapons listed in § 46.05. It is a different offense from unlawful carrying of a weapon under § 46.02, which is about who may carry and how, and it is different again from possession of a prohibited weapon under § 46.05, which is about the item itself. Section 46.03 is purely about the place. People often have all three concepts tangled together after an arrest, and untangling them is the first thing a defense lawyer does.
Two structural features control most of these cases. First, the statute defines "premises" narrowly — it means a building or a portion of a building, not the grounds, parking lot, or sidewalk around it. Second, a few of the listed places only become off-limits when the property owner gives a specific kind of legal notice. Both of those features open real defenses, and both are covered below.
The full list of prohibited places
The locations in § 46.03(a) are the heart of the statute — use the table as a checklist. Find the place where you were stopped, and note both the grade and whether notice matters. The grades are not uniform, which is the single most misunderstood part of this offense.
The locations in § 46.03(a) are the heart of the statute. Use the table as a checklist: find the place where you were stopped, and note both the grade and whether notice matters. The grades are not uniform — that is the single most misunderstood part of this offense.
| Prohibited location (§ 46.03(a)) | Typical grade | Notes / defense angle |
|---|---|---|
| Premises of a school or educational institution | 3rd-degree felony | "Premises" = the building only; the parking lot and grounds are excluded. K-12 vs. higher-ed carry rules differ. |
| Polling place on election day or during early voting | 3rd-degree felony | Applies only while voting is occurring at that location. |
| Government court or offices used by a court | 3rd-degree felony | Unless pursuant to written court regulations or written authorization. |
| Racetrack | 3rd-degree felony | Pari-mutuel racing facilities. |
| Secured area of an airport | 3rd-degree felony | Past the TSA checkpoint only — not the lobby or garage. Checkpoint "turn-around" defense in § 46.03(e-1). |
| Within 1,000 feet of a correctional facility during an execution (with notice) | 3rd-degree felony | Requires posted notice; narrow, rarely charged. |
| Business deriving 51%+ of income from on-premises alcohol sales (the "51% bar") | 3rd-degree felony | Requires the red "51%" sign under the Alcoholic Beverage Code; a restaurant that also serves food is usually not a 51% establishment. |
| Correctional facility | 3rd-degree felony | Jails and prisons. |
| Civil commitment facility | 3rd-degree felony | Sexually-violent-predator facilities. |
| Open meeting of a governmental body | 3rd-degree felony | Applies only if proper notice of the weapons prohibition was given. |
| Professional, collegiate, or interscholastic sporting event | Class A misdemeanor | Exception for a participant using the weapon in the event. |
| Hospital or nursing facility | Class A misdemeanor | Only when the facility gives the required notice. |
| Amusement park | Class A misdemeanor | Statutory definition is specific (size, attendance, security) — many "fun" venues do not qualify. |
| Location-restricted knife in a place other than a school | Class C misdemeanor | A long blade outside a school is a fine-only offense, not a felony. |
A few categories that people expect to be on this list are governed by a different statute. A place of worship, a private business, or most government buildings can prohibit licensed carry, but they do it through the trespass-by-license-holder rules in § 30.06 (concealed) and § 30.07 (open), and through the license-holder rules in § 46.035 — not § 46.03 itself. That distinction changes the grade dramatically: a § 30.06/§ 30.07 violation is generally a Class C or Class A matter, not a felony. If you were charged under § 46.03 for a place that should fall under those notice statutes, that is a charging error worth fighting.
Why your License to Carry does not help here
Subsection (f) of § 46.03 says directly that it is not a defense that the person possessed a handgun and was licensed to carry it. The locational ban sits on top of every carry method, including constitutional (permitless) carry — which is why this is the most common felony trap for careful gun owners.
This is the part that catches careful gun owners off guard. Subsection (f) of § 46.03 says directly that it is not a defense to prosecution that the person possessed a handgun and was licensed to carry it. Your License to Carry authorizes you to carry in the ordinary public spaces of Texas, and constitutional (permitless) carry under the 2021 law lets eligible adults carry without any license at all — but neither one unlocks the doors that § 46.03 closes. The locational ban sits on top of every carry method.
That trap is the most common way an otherwise lawful carrier ends up with a felony. Someone with a valid LTC walks into a courthouse to pay a ticket, forgets the pistol is in the bag, and gets stopped at the metal detector. The license that makes the rest of their day lawful provides no protection at the courthouse door. A handful of locations do honor an LTC — for example, certain government premises and 51% establishments are handled differently for license holders — but you cannot assume that, and the statute's default is that the license is irrelevant. Walking in voluntarily and stopping yourself before the secured point, however, can matter a great deal, which is why the airport "turn-around" defense and the exact geography of the stop are so important.
Where "premises" ends: the parking-lot defense
For § 46.03, "premises" means a building or a portion of a building — it expressly excludes driveways, streets, sidewalks, parking lots, parking garages, and other parking areas. That far-narrower-than-everyday definition is the single most powerful tool in a school- or court-premises case.
One word does an enormous amount of work in this statute: "premises." For § 46.03, the Legislature defined "premises" to mean a building or a portion of a building, and it expressly wrote that the term does not include any public or private driveway, street, sidewalk or walkway, parking lot, parking garage, or other parking area. That is a far narrower definition than the everyday meaning of the word, and it is the single most powerful tool in a school-premises or court-premises case.
The Texarkana Court of Appeals applied that definition to acquit a defendant in Dupree v. State, 433 S.W.3d 788 (Tex. App.—Texarkana 2014, no pet.). The State had charged him with possessing a handgun on the physical premises of a college, but the proof showed only that he had the gun on a campus parking lot, on grassy areas, on a retaining wall, and running between buildings. The court held that "the plain meaning of the phrase 'building or a portion of a building' is clear and unambiguous" and that "the possession of a firearm on a street, sidewalk, or parking lot, or even in a parking garage — which may well be a building — is not a violation of Section 46.03." Because there was "simply no evidence in the record that Dupree entered a building or a portion of a building," the conviction was reversed and a judgment of acquittal was rendered.
Dupree matters in real cases far more often than people expect, because so many weapons stops happen in exactly the excluded spaces — a car in the school parking lot, a bag set down on the courthouse sidewalk before the metal detector, a firearm found during a stop in an airport garage. When the State's own evidence places the weapon outside a building, the "premises" theory can fail as a matter of law. The defense work is meticulous: pull the surveillance, the parking maps, the body-camera footage, and the officer's own words about where the weapon actually was, and hold the State to the narrow statutory definition.
Notice-dependent places and the § 30.06 / § 30.07 problem
Not every listed location is prohibited automatically. Some — an open governmental meeting, a hospital, the execution-perimeter provision — are off-limits only when the proper, highly technical notice is given. Texas courts enforce the effective-notice requirement, so defective signage is a concrete line of attack.
Not every location on the list is prohibited automatically. Some — an open governmental meeting, a hospital or nursing facility, the execution-perimeter provision — only become off-limits when the proper notice is given. For license holders, the related statute § 46.035 and the trespass statutes § 30.06 and § 30.07 require notice that is highly technical: specific statutory language, specific lettering size, in English and Spanish, conspicuously posted, or else delivered orally or by written card. Texas appellate courts have made clear that this notice requirement is real and enforceable. In Tafel v. State, 524 S.W.3d 642 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 2016), aff'd, 536 S.W.3d 517 (Tex. Crim. App. 2017), the courts emphasized that liability for carrying past a posted prohibition depends on the person having received "effective notice" as the statute defines it — not general awareness that carry might be restricted somewhere.
For a defense lawyer, that opens a concrete line of attack on any notice-dependent charge: Was a sign actually posted? Did it use the exact statutory wording? Was it the right size, in the right languages, in a conspicuous spot? Was oral or card notice ever given? If the State cannot prove legally effective notice, the notice-dependent charge does not hold. We routinely send an investigator to photograph the entrance, measure the signage, and document exactly what a person walking in would and would not have seen.
Punishment: why the grade depends on the location
Section 46.03(g) sets the default at a third-degree felony — 2 to 10 years and a fine up to $10,000 — but several locations drop to a Class A misdemeanor, and a location-restricted knife outside a school is only a Class C misdemeanor. The location you were in sets the grade.
Section 46.03(g) sets the default punishment at a third-degree felony, which carries 2 to 10 years in prison and a fine up to $10,000. But the statute breaks from that default for several locations, dropping them to a Class A misdemeanor — up to a year in county jail and a $4,000 fine — and a location-restricted knife outside a school is only a Class C misdemeanor. The grade you are facing is therefore set by which place you were in, which is why getting the location classification right is not a technicality; it is the difference between a felony and a fine.
| Grade | Confinement | Maximum fine | Applies to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Third-degree felony (§ 46.03(g)) | 2—10 years in prison | $10,000 | Schools, polling places, courts, racetracks, secured airport areas, 51% bars, correctional/civil-commitment facilities, open government meetings |
| Class A misdemeanor | Up to 1 year in county jail | $4,000 | Sporting events, hospitals/nursing facilities, amusement parks |
| Class C misdemeanor | None (fine only) | $500 | Location-restricted knife in a prohibited place other than a school |
A felony conviction also brings consequences that outlast the sentence. A § 46.03 felony makes you a person who can no longer lawfully possess a firearm under Texas Penal Code § 46.04 and federal law, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) — an especially bitter result for someone whose only crime was carrying a gun in the wrong building. It can also affect a License to Carry, professional licenses, immigration status for non-citizens, and employment. Those stakes are exactly why fighting the grade — or keeping the case off your record entirely — is worth the effort.
What the State must prove
To convict, the State must prove every element beyond a reasonable doubt: a culpable mental state, possession of a covered weapon, a statutorily prohibited location, and — for notice-dependent places — that legally effective notice was given. Each element is a place a case can break down.
To convict, the State must prove every element beyond a reasonable doubt. Each element is also a place a case can break down:
- A culpable mental state
- The person acted intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly. A weapon a person genuinely did not know was present — left in a borrowed car, a bag they did not pack — challenges this element.
- Possession of a covered weapon
- A firearm, illegal knife, location-restricted knife, club, or a prohibited weapon under § 46.05. The State must connect the specific item to the person.
- On or in a statutorily prohibited location
- The place must actually meet the statutory definition — the "premises" (building) of a school, the "secured area" of an airport, a genuine 51% establishment. This is where the location and "premises" defenses live.
- Notice, where the location requires it
- For notice-dependent places, the State must prove the legally effective notice was actually given. No valid notice, no conviction for that location.
Defenses we build against a § 46.03 charge
Because the offense is built around a location, the strongest defenses attack the location, the search, or the proof — the "premises" defense, the location-does-not-qualify argument, the airport turn-around, defective notice, Fourth Amendment suppression, lack of knowledge, statutory exemption, and charge reduction.
Because the offense is built around a location, the strongest defenses attack the location, the search, or the proof. Here is how we evaluate a case:
- The "premises" defense (Dupree). If the weapon was in a parking lot, garage, driveway, sidewalk, or on the grounds rather than inside a building, the school- or court-premises theory can fail as a matter of law.
- The location does not qualify. A restaurant that serves alcohol is usually not a 51% establishment; a venue may not meet the statutory definition of "amusement park"; a parking garage is not the "secured area" of an airport. Make the State prove the place is actually what the statute describes.
- The airport turn-around (§ 46.03(e-1)). If you were notified at the screening checkpoint and immediately left with the firearm before completing screening, the statute itself provides a defense.
- Defective or absent notice. For notice-dependent places, attack the signage and the § 30.06 / § 30.07 / § 46.035 requirements head-on.
- Fourth Amendment suppression. If the stop, detention, or search that produced the weapon was unlawful, a motion to suppress can take the weapon out of the case entirely.
- No knowledge of the weapon. A borrowed vehicle, a shared bag, or a firearm a passenger brought without your knowledge undercuts the required mental state.
- A statutory exemption applies (§ 46.15). On-duty peace officers and other listed persons are exempt from §§ 46.02 and 46.03. Whether an exemption fits is fact-specific.
- Charge reduction or diversion. Where the conviction cannot be avoided outright, the goal becomes a reduction to a misdemeanor, deferred adjudication, or a pretrial diversion that keeps a felony off your record.
Hypothetical 1. A licensed carrier drops her daughter at a Frisco high school and is stopped by an SRO who sees the pistol's grip in her console while she is parked in the pickup line. Because the car never left the parking lot and she never entered a building, the "premises" definition from Dupree is directly in play, and the felony school-premises theory may not survive. (Illustration only; every case turns on its own facts.)
Hypothetical 2. A man flies out of DFW, forgets a handgun is in his backpack, and is flagged at the TSA checkpoint. If officers notify him and he immediately leaves the checkpoint with the bag before screening is completed, § 46.03(e-1) supplies a defense; if he is already past the secured point, the analysis shifts to exactly where the line was. (Illustration only.)
How DFW counties handle these cases
Where your case is filed shapes how it moves. We defend § 46.03 cases across Collin, Dallas, Denton, and Tarrant Counties, and the courthouse routine — filing, bond conditions, first settings, and the appetite for deferred adjudication — differs in each.
Where your case is filed shapes how it moves. We defend § 46.03 cases across the four core North Texas counties, and the courthouse routine differs in each.
In Collin County, felony weapons cases are filed at the Collin County Courthouse in McKinney and heard in the district courts there; misdemeanor-grade § 46.03 matters move through the county courts at law. Frisco and Plano cases — including school-premises stops involving Frisco ISD and Plano ISD campuses — generally route here. In Dallas County, felony cases are handled at the Frank Crowley Courts Building, and the volume of courthouse-entry and airport cases (Dallas Love Field sits in the county) means the district attorney's office sees these charges regularly. Denton County files at the Denton County courts complex in Denton, where bond conditions and first settings tend to come quickly. Tarrant County routes felony matters through the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center in Fort Worth; DFW Airport straddles the Dallas—Tarrant line, so airport firearm cases can land in either county depending on the exact terminal. Across all four, prosecutors will often consider deferred adjudication or a diversion program for a first offender with no aggravating facts — but that conversation goes better when the defense has already documented the location, the signage, and the search before the first court date.
