AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas permitless carry bill is headed to Gov. Greg Abbott's desk. If signed into law, the bill would allow people to bring guns into restaurants but not bars.
During the pandemic, many bars became restaurants through a Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission certificate to help bars survive.
"Nothing's really changed for me. You're not really allowed to bring the gun in," said Bob Woody, who owns about 20 bars across Austin.
Woody transformed most of his bars into restaurants during the pandemic but has since reverted them back to bars after Gov. Abbott and county judges allowed bars to reopen.
Meanwhile, on 12th Street and Lamar Boulevard, the owner of The Tavern is keeping the neighborhood bar a restaurant.
"We'll not be allowing guns into our places," Shannon Sedwick said.
The permitless carry bill allows restaurant owners to place signage banning guns from their establishments, along with verbal and formal warnings.
"We just really don't feel like it's a great idea to have people with drinking alcohol and having a gun nearby so that if they just don't like what somebody says to them, they can pull out their gun and shoot it," Sedwick said.
Sedwick worries particularly about Sixth Street, which houses many Austin bars but also had shootings in 2019 and 2020.
"It's not a good thing to have people with firearms, and especially people who have no training and have no sense of the regulations that they need to do. It is just a license to kill, basically. We're definitely against it," Sedwick said.
The Texas Bar and Nightclub Alliance (TBNA) agrees with Woody that the bill really doesn't change anything for bar owners. In fact, TBNA President Michael Klein said he supports the bill.
"This bill just allows adults to make adult decisions and is what we want in all aspects of life from our government," Klein said.
If Abbott signs the bill into law, which is expected, it would go into effect on Sept. 1, 2021.
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