What happens if someone breaks into your car and uses your firearm? Texas does not require a person to have a License to Carry or other documentation in order to carry a loaded handgun in a vehicle if the vehicle is owned by the person or under the person’s control. The said gun must be “concealed” or out of plain sight to be lawfully carried. Many gun owners carry firearms in a vehicle as a means of protection, but interpretations of the law can become confusing when you introduce extenuating circumstances, such as minors.
SMB Defense Lawyer Shawn McDonald walks through some scenarios on vehicle gun safety and minors to explain what legal responsibility you have as a gun-owning parent in the state of Texas.
For instance, what liability do you have if a minor accesses a firearm in your parked vehicle and harms someone with it? If a child garners access to your firearms, they cannot be violating any law to obtain the firearm, such as breaking into your car or committing a left. Texas law provides gun owners protection against the above example.
Here’s another scenario. What if you are traveling with a minor (your child or someone else’s) in your vehicle and that minor accesses your gun and injures himself or someone else? McDonald comments that even if that minor does not injure another party, you could be charged if someone calls law enforcement. At that point, you would made a “readily dis-chargeable firearm” available to a minor without implementing a safeguard in place to prevent accessibility.
Under Texas law, parents must safely secure firearms from minors, and it’s a serious offense if you are inattentive or unintentionally reckless. As the parent and the gun owner, you must prevent firearms “access” to minors by all means necessary to reduce your liability. Not only for your liability but for the safety of others. You should be mindful of human life by maintaining strict safeguards for your firearms.
Video Transcript for “What happens if someone breaks into your car and uses your firearm?”:
Interviewer: “Uh, break into my car. Two different scenarios. One is somebody breaks into my car. Let’s say the neighbor’s kid. He’s fifteen years old. He breaks into my car because he sees the gun laying on my seat and he takes it, plays with it, shoots himself, or shoots you know Timmy down the street, am I responsible? First, let’s ask that.”
Shawn McDonald: “No. So, they can’t be… if a child gains access to a firearm, they can’t be violating any law. Meaning they can’t be breaking into your car, they can’t be breaking into you house, they can’t be committing a theft. They can’t be doing any of those things. And again the code reads ‘was gained by entering property in violation of this code.’ So if they gained access to whatever property where your gun is located, it’s a defense for you. If they violated…”
Interviewer: “So he broke the law by breaking into my car, therefore, I’m not responsible.”
Shawn McDonald: “Absolutely. That’s right.”
Interviewer: “Ok.”
Shawn McDonald: “That’s right.”
Interviewer: “But if I invite little Timmy over, and take him to the grocery store with me and he reaches down and hits a trigger and he shoots himself, then I’m liable.”
Shawn McDonald: “Yeah, and he doesn’t even have to shoot himself. If he reaches down and grabs a weapon and happens to even shoot it and somebody calls the cops, you’ve made that firearm readily available, a dischargeable firearm readily available, to Timmy.”
Interviewer: “Yeah, I think that’s a very important law to highlight on. It doesn’t matter if they grab the gun or shoot it or use it. It’s if it’s accessible to a child.”
Shawn McDonald: “Right. And I mean the code reads…”
Interviewer: “You’re breaking the law basically if you have a gun in your house, in your car, in your purse, anywhere that is accessible to a child whether they use it or not, you’re immediately violating the law.”
Shawn McDonald: “The child has to gain access to it. So the child has to somehow get a hold of the weapon is how I would read that.”
Interviewer: “Ok.”
Shawn McDonald: “And that could be as simple as touching it. Doesn’t mean they have to shoot it or hold it or hide it or carry it. If they access, and that’s an interesting word that the legislature use, is they have access. They have accessed that weapon. That’s a crime.”
Interviewer 2: “Because then what makes me think of, and again, you could get, you could start cutting hairs when it comes to this kind of stuff, but I think about if you had a gun. Like I have younger kids and have a gun and you know if you have a gun inside the closet on a top shelf that they can’t really reach, I mean, that’s not accessible for them, correct?”
Shawn McDonald: “Well and the code says ‘left the firearm in a place to which the person knew or should have known the child would gain access.’ So if you have a three year old child and you hide it in the top of your closet, there’s no reason to believe that a three year old’s going to figure out how to climb to the top. Number one, how to climb that high. Number two, how to climb that high in your closet.”
Interviewer 2: “Right.”
Shawn McDonald: “I think you’re, you know, safe. But if you’re talking about a seven year old, that could be a little different. They’re a little more creative. They could gain access to the top of your closet. And should you have known that they could gain access to the top of your closet?”
Interviewer 2: “Right.”
Shawn McDonald: “And I think that again goes to that reasonableness that we talked about in self-defense is “should have known”
Interviewer 2: “Right.”
Shawn McDonald: “That can get interesting.”
Interviewer 2: “Right.”
Shawn McDonald: “And I think that that’s directly related to the age of your child.”
Disclaimer
*This blog post, “What happens if someone breaks into your car and uses your firearm?”, is for general information purposes only. Nothing on this site should be taken as legal advice for any individual case or situation. This information is not intended to create, and receipt or viewing does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship.