AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Waller County today to bring it into compliance with the state’s licensed carry laws. On August 10, 2016, Attorney General Paxton gave Waller County final notice to comply with the law, but the county refused. Enforcing state law, the attorney general’s lawsuit requires the county to allow citizens to lawfully carry firearms in areas of the Waller County Courthouse that contain non-judicial county administrative offices, such as the county clerk, county treasurer, and county elections offices, as the law requires.

“A local government cannot be allowed to flout Texas’s licensed carry laws, or any state law, simply because it disagrees with the law or doesn’t feel like honoring it,” said Attorney General Paxton. “I will vigilantly protect and preserve the Second Amendment rights of Texans.”

Texas’ licensed carry laws allow government entities to exclude handguns from the portion of a building that houses an office utilized by a government court. Attorney General Paxton’s lawsuit explains that county treasurers’ offices and county elections’ offices do not qualify as offices utilized by a government court.  The attorney general recently filed a similar lawsuit against the City of Austin seeking compliance where Austin claims that its city hall is a government court.