ARANSAS PASS, Texas — Texans will soon be able to carry handguns in public without a license or training.
Gov. Greg Abbott signed the so-called "Constitutional carry" law.
House bill 1927 allows anyone 21 and older who can legally possess firearms in the state to carry handguns in public places without permits.
Critics say it makes it more difficult to figure out who's unlawfully carrying a weapon.
The legislation set to go into effect on Sept. 1.
Many police departments offer a license to carry course….one of them being the Aransas Pass Police Department.
But with Abbott signing the Constitutional carry law, soon Texans won’t need to take a course.
We talked with the assistant chief at Aransas Pass, who told KRIS 6 News they’re already starting to see people drop from their course and he's expecting to see a drop in the amount of people enrolling.
The course is booked through July, but are waiting to set further dates because they're waiting for some state guidance on the classes.
However, Assistant Chief Lynn Pearce tells KRIS 6 that the department will continue offering the classes because there's advantages to taking the course and one of those advantages is that some other states will honor people's license to carry when they travel.
Pearce says during the course they also teach where you can legally carry a firearm and they teach communication skills on how to talk down a situation so you don't have to use a gun.
We’ll have a full report on this and how the new law could affect crime in our later reports at 5, 6 and 10 p.m. tonight
