AUSTIN — The fight for open carry and campus carry is done, but the next battle in the war over Texas gun rights, and the issue — so-called permitless carry — will likely be decided next week. 

House Bill 1911, by state Rep. James White, R-Hillister, would authorize anyone who’s allowed to own a handgun to carry it without obtaining a state-issued License To Carry, and representatives for both sides of the conflict agree that the proposal has advanced further in the legislative process than any previous effort.

“There is ample time for this bill to become law,” state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, said Monday. “To everyone’s astonishment and horror, this bill has had a committee hearing and has been voted out of committee.”

An opposition group that includes the Texas Police Chiefs Association, Department of Public Safety Officers Association and Texas Municipal Police Association, on Tuesday said in a statement that the bill “shifts the burden of proof to law enforcement officers to verify eligibility of a person on the streets, in what likely is already a rapidly developing situation,” and endangers the public.

But advocates say they’re simply standing up for the Second Amendment.

“Anyone who can legally own a gun should be able to carry it,” said Richard Briscoe, legislative director for Open Carry Texas. “We do not support government-mandated training as a pre-condition to exercise a Constitutional right.”

Training is currently required to obtain a Texas License To Carry.

“You can be a Second Amendment supporter and you can also support common-sense gun laws,” said Nicole Golden, the Austin group leader for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. “That agenda doesn’t necessarily represent what most Texans want.”

Joan Neuberger, a University of Texas at Austin history professor who spoke at the Monday press conference where Hinojosa appeared, also addressed the Constitution.

“Whatever you think of the Second Amendment, we have a lot of other rights,” she said. “We don’t always carry them out in the most extreme form just because we can.” 

Golden cited a recently released SurveyUSA poll showing that 91 percent of Texas voters “support the state’s current License to Carry permit requirement for carrying a handgun in public.”

According to the survey, “90 percent of gun owners, 94 percent of current permit holders, 96 percent of Republicans and 91 percent of Democrats” back current Texas laws requiring a permit to carry a handgun in public.

Regardless, Terry Holcomb, a Republican Party of Texas executive committee member, said that being barred from legally carrying a sidearm because of convictions for misdemeanors such as littering isn’t right.

Convictions for Class A or Class B misdemeanors within the previous five years currently bar Texans from obtaining a License To Carry.

The bill, now revised as a committee substitute, would amend the Penal Code to allow those who are 21 and who are qualified to buy and possess a handgun under federal law to carry it, whether they have a License To Carry or not. 

Members of street gangs would not be authorized to carry under the bill.

“It’s rather illogical,” given the fact that Texans can carry rifles without a permit, Holcomb said. “Folks just want to be able to carry without paying a fee and asking the government for permission — or being on a list.”

If the bill becomes law, Holcomb said Texas will join a group of 31 states recognizing some form of unlicensed handgun carry. 

If it doesn’t happen this session, the bill will be back. 

“It is coming to Texas,” Holcomb said.  

John Austin covers the Texas Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach him at jaustin@cnhi.com.