Any airgunner should be asking what is legal and what is not. So, for the Texan airgunner, what is legal in Texas, and what is not?
BB and pellet guns may count as deadly weapons under Texas law if used in a crime, but otherwise Texas has no regulations for airguns, going so far as to prevent cities from establishing laws that regulate airguns save in specific circumstances.
So because Texas has no state regulations governing airguns, and the only other law in place prevents cities from establishing rules and regulations beyond what is reasonable, you will be pretty free to purchase, store and use your BB gun however you see fit. But cities in Texas are allowed to regulate BB guns in specific circumstances, so, what are those circumstances?
Texas Local Code
Texas is fairly well known for being a gun-friendly place. Texas does have reasonable rules in place, but its gun friendliness extends pretty generously to pellet and BB guns as well.
Under Texas State law
, no municipalty has any legal authority to control how airguns are transferred, transported, owned, stored, sold— you get the idea. Your airgun is your airgun, and city governments have no authority on any of that stuff, with a few notable exceptions.
With the fact that Texas itself doesn’t have any regulations in place for airguns means that statewide, you can expect pretty much the same thing wherever you go. Dallas will have very similar rules and laws about BB guns as Amarillo, Houston, and El Paso will.
One ability granted to cities through state law allows them to regulate the discharge of airguns in city limits. Pretty commonly, you will see laws keeping you from discharging any firearm or airgun within city limits in just about any city you go to, and this is almost always a midemeanor.
You should check your city laws, but just know that it will almost always be a bad idea.
Municipalities are also allowed to regulate two parts of how minors are allowed to carry an airgun. Cities may regulate whether a minor can bring a an airgun onto public property, like a public park, and can regulate a minor carrying an airgun onto someone else’s private property without permission from the property owner. Pretty reasonable.
The last exception comes in times of emergency. When there is a riot, insurrection, or natural disaster, then the municipality can govern the use of airguns as the city sees fit to protect the public health and safety.
Other than where municipalities take the freedom granted to them by state law to regulate these guns where they see fit, Texas will uniformly have virtually no rules and regulations governing you and your BB gun (unless you know, you intentionally harm someone, that is what some might call “rude”, or, “illegal”).
