NBA player James Harden was arrested over the weekend in Texas for “unlawful carry of a firearm in a motor vehicle.”
But wait, how can carry in a vehicle be unlawful in a state like Texas, where constitutional carry is the law of the land?
On Saturday, June 13 at around 3am, Harden was driving a Mercedes sedan that was part of a group of five vehicles traveling through downtown Houston, Texas.
According to reports, one of the vehicles was pulled over near the 1600 block of Jefferson Street, when Harden pulled up behind it in his vehicle. During the interaction, an officer noticed a handgun sitting in the cupholder of Harden’s vehicle - for which he was arrested under a misdemeanor charge and taken to Harris County Jail after Harden indicated that the handgun was his.
The charge? “Unlawful carrying of a weapon in a motor vehicle,” a misdemeanor under Texas state law.
But how can that be possible - isn’t Texas a constitutional carry state?
What could possibly qualify as “unlawful carry?”
Well, according to the statute, the carry of a handgun in a vehicle is illegal when:
“The handgun is in plain view, unless the person is 21 years of age or older or is licensed to carry a handgun under Subchapter H, Chapter 411, Government Code, and the handgun is carried in a holster”
Translated from legalese, this means that Texas views any handgun “in plain view” not secured in a holster by someone without a state issued permit to carry, a crime.
A carve out in Texas’s constitutional carry law, the statue says that if a handgun is visible in a vehicle, it must be in a holster.
According to sources writing on the technicalities of the law itself, a firearm not in a holster must be hidden. In a glove box, console, under the seat or in a bag — those are all perfectly legal.
Having the gun out on the seat? Go to jail.
This seems like a massive oversight for a state that by most measurements, is one of the most pro-gun states in the country.
According to reporting, Harden owns the gun legally, and there was no crime committed. While there are conflicting reports about the traffic stop as to whether Harden himself had made a traffic violation or not, the carrying of the firearm itself was legal under Texas law.
The only exception was the technicality of Texas law requiring that handguns in plain view by those without a permit be secured in a holster.
And for that, Harden had to be arrested and taken to jail.
This story got a ton of attention over the weekend because Harden is a famous basketball player, but we at GOA are left thinking, how many other law-abiding gun owners has this exact situation happened to?
Texas must change this law.
That’s why we spoke out about this situation right as it happened.
If there’s one message, we’d like politicians in Texas to take away from this situation it’s this:
Texas must change its law.
The glaring hypocrisy from a state that has constitutional carry, to be arresting someone for something so pedantic as not having that gun in a holster, in plain view in their own car, committing no crime, is outrageous.
While this may have happened to a celebrity - regular, every day, law-abiding gun owners in Texas are at risk of the exact same situation happening to them.
Lawmakers in Texas should not let that stand.
Change the law. Nobody should be arrested for carrying their firearm simply because of the position the firearm is observed in by law enforcement; it’s a right - not a privilege.