Shooting On Your Own Land Within Houston City Limits?


jason331

New member
Well, technically it's my grandmother's land. She lives in Greenwood Forest in northwestern Houston close to 1960 on about an acre and a half of wooded land. The land is next to a neighborhood (Greenwood Forest) but not part of it. The land is within the Houston city limits and definitely within Harris County.

The question is: Assuming I have my grandmother's permission, can I shoot on the land, into a dirt berm, for target practice? The potential shooting would be done during the day; most likely on a Saturday afternoon. Behind the berm, about 50 feet away, is a large concrete fence and a small industrial park. I would be potentially shooting small caliber handguns.

Thanks!
 

Texas Penal Code § 42.12 prohibits the "reckless" discharge of a firearm within the city limits of any municipality with a population over 100,000; and at the same time allows cities to outright ban discharge within city limits.

I can find definitive evidence that discharge is banned in Austin, but Houston's city code is a nightmare to sort through. I found laws referring to MINORS discharging a firearm, but that's it. You *MAY* be safe, but I also found on a lawyer question-and-answer site a statement that discharging a firearm inside Houston is a Misdemeanor.

I know that some places put the word "reckless" in meaning to claim that the act is by definition reckless; but it also opens up to the claim that it therefore only bans actual recklessness. (For example, Portland, Oregon's anti-open-carry law that declares that it is reckless to have a loaded weapon. Yet somehow having a CHL makes it no longer reckless.)
 
I think I saw those same search results in my Googling as well. I found references both stating as long as it's not reckless that it's legal and contradictory references saying all firearm discharge is illegal.

I wonder how shooting ranges get around that...
 
I'll suggest, without confirming it, that it is illegal to shoot in any city limits in TX. And I know there are some counties that prohibit shooting on land less than 10 acres.
 

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