Prohibited Weapons in Texas: Categories, Penalties, and Exceptions

Texas Penal Code Section 46.05 lists the prohibited weapons in Texas: explosive weapons, machine guns, armor-piercing handgun ammunition, chemical dispensing devices, zip guns, tire deflation devices, and improvised explosive devices.¹ Possessing, manufacturing, transporting, repairing, or selling any of them is a third-degree felony in most cases, punishable by two to ten years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.² Two of the categories — explosive weapons and machine guns — have a legal path through federal registration. The others do not.

The Six Categories, Item by Item

Explosive Weapons and Improvised Explosive Devices

An explosive weapon under Texas law is any bomb, grenade, rocket, or mine designed to cause serious bodily injury, death, or substantial property damage, or to produce a report loud enough to cause public alarm. The definition also covers any device built to launch one.³ Improvised explosive devices are listed as a separate category at Section 46.05(a)(6), covering homemade bombs that fall outside the formal definition.

Federal law regulates the same territory through the National Firearms Act, which defines “destructive devices” to include explosive and incendiary bombs, grenades, rockets with more than four ounces of propellant, missiles with more than a quarter-ounce of explosive charge, mines, and any weapon firing a projectile through a bore greater than half an inch (with an exception for sporting shotguns).⁴

Machine Guns

Texas defines a machine gun as any firearm capable of shooting more than two rounds automatically, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.³ Federal law separately bars the transfer or possession of any machine gun manufactured after May 19, 1986, aside from narrow government and grandfathered-owner exceptions.⁵ The only machine guns a civilian can legally own are pre-1986 models registered with the ATF.

Two accessory categories are worth flagging. Bump stocks are currently legal to possess in Texas after the Supreme Court held in Cargill v. United States (2024) that a semiautomatic rifle equipped with a bump stock does not meet the statutory definition of a machine gun.⁶ Certain forced reset triggers (specifically the Rare Breed FRT-15 and Wide Open Triggers) were held not to be machine guns in a July 2024 Northern District of Texas ruling, and the ATF agreed not to enforce machine gun laws against those particular devices.⁷ True conversion devices like auto sears, switches, and lightning links remain prohibited under both state and federal law.

Armor-Piercing Ammunition

Section 46.05(a)(2) bans handgun ammunition designed primarily to penetrate metal or body armor and intended for use in pistols and revolvers.³ There is no NFA registration exception. Possession is illegal regardless of licensing. Federal law under 18 U.S.C. Section 922 restricts manufacture and import of armor-piercing ammunition to government use, export, and authorized testing.⁸

Chemical Dispensing Devices

A chemical dispensing device is any device designed to spray a substance that causes adverse psychological or physical effects on a person. Small commercial sprays sold for personal protection, like standard pepper spray canisters, are excluded from the ban.³ The statute targets larger or modified devices built for offensive use.

Zip Guns

A zip gun is a homemade firearm adapted to fire a projectile through a barrel using an explosive or burning substance, where the starting materials were not originally manufactured as a firearm.³ Crude pipe guns and similar improvised weapons fit squarely inside this definition.

Tire Deflation Devices

Caltrops, spike strips, and anything designed to puncture a vehicle’s tires when driven over are prohibited. One-way traffic control devices with clear warning signage nearby are excluded.³ This is the only Section 46.05 item carrying a lighter penalty than the others.

The NFA Registration Exception

Two of the six categories can be legally owned by civilians who complete federal registration. Explosive weapons and machine guns are lawful in Texas if they are registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record maintained by the ATF, or if they qualify as a curio or relic classified by the Department of Justice.¹

Registration runs through the ATF’s NFA Division and requires submitting either a Form 1 (to make a new item) or a Form 4 (to transfer an existing item), along with detailed personal information and a background check.⁹ As of January 2026, the federal making and transfer tax dropped from $200 to $0, though the registration requirement and background check are still mandatory. Wait times have historically ranged from a few weeks to over a year.

Armor-piercing ammunition, chemical dispensing devices, zip guns, tire deflation devices, and improvised explosive devices have no equivalent registration path. They are flat-out illegal.

Penalties

Most Section 46.05 offenses are third-degree felonies: two to ten years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.² That range applies to explosive weapons, machine guns, armor-piercing ammunition, chemical dispensing devices, zip guns, and improvised explosive devices.

Tire deflation devices are the exception. Possessing one is a state jail felony, carrying 180 days to two years in a state jail facility and a fine of up to $10,000.¹

Exposure often climbs from there. If the weapon is tied to another offense, those charges stack. Prior felony convictions trigger habitual-offender enhancements that push the sentencing range higher. And because most of the prohibited categories also violate federal law, prosecution at both state and federal levels is possible, particularly for unregistered explosive devices and machine guns.

Items People Wrongly Assume Are Banned

Several weapons that Texans commonly think are illegal are actually lawful under state law, though some still require federal registration. Getting this wrong in either direction creates problems.

Suppressors. Suppressors are not listed in Section 46.05 and are not prohibited weapons under Texas law. They are regulated federally under the NFA, and lawful ownership requires ATF registration and a background check.⁹ In 2021, Texas passed House Bill 957 attempting to exempt in-state suppressors from federal NFA rules. Federal authorities have not accepted that position, and in August 2024 the ATF raided a Texas manufacturer producing suppressors under the HB 957 framework. Comply with NFA registration regardless of what HB 957 says on paper.

Switchblades and large knives. House Bill 1935, passed in 2017, repealed the definition of “illegal knife” from the Penal Code.¹⁰ Switchblades, Bowie knives, and swords can now be owned, carried, and sold. Knives with blades over 5.5 inches are “location-restricted” and cannot be carried into schools, polling places, courts, and similar sensitive locations.

Short-barreled rifles and shotguns. Neither is listed in Section 46.05. Both are regulated federally under the NFA and follow the same registration path as suppressors.⁵ Pistols with stabilizing braces remain a legally uncertain area; the ATF’s 2023 rule reclassifying braced pistols as SBRs was vacated by a federal court, but the agency has stated it will continue making case-by-case enforcement decisions.

Who Cannot Possess Any Firearm in Texas

Separate from the prohibited-weapon rules, both Texas and federal law bar certain people from possessing any firearm at all. These restrictions catch far more Texans than the Section 46.05 categories do.

Under Texas Penal Code Section 46.04, a felon cannot possess a firearm until five years after release from confinement or community supervision, whichever is later. After that five-year window, possession is lawful only inside the person’s own home.¹¹ A felon caught with a gun outside the home, even decades after conviction, faces a third-degree felony. Texas also bars firearm possession for five years after a Class A misdemeanor assault conviction involving a family or household member, and for anyone under a qualifying protective order.

Federal law under 18 U.S.C. Section 922(g) casts a wider net. Possession of any firearm or ammunition is permanently barred for anyone:⁸

Convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year in prison
Who is a fugitive from justice
Who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance
Adjudicated as mentally defective or committed to a mental institution
Illegally present in the United States, or admitted under a nonimmigrant visa
Dishonorably discharged from the military
Who has renounced U.S. citizenship
Subject to a qualifying domestic violence restraining order
Convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence

The controlled-substance prohibition deserves special attention. Marijuana remains illegal under federal law even in states that have legalized it, so a Texas resident who uses marijuana and possesses a firearm risks federal felony prosecution under Section 922(g). The Supreme Court is currently reviewing whether that prohibition survives Second Amendment scrutiny; until it rules, the ban is enforceable.

Restoring Firearm Rights

Federal firearm disabilities can be lifted by petitioning the Attorney General under 18 U.S.C. Section 925(c). The applicant must show that their record and circumstances indicate they will not be a danger to public safety and that relief would not be contrary to the public interest.¹² Federal relief does not restore rights under Texas law on its own.

Under Texas law, a felon’s right to possess a firearm partially restores automatically five years after release, but only inside the home.¹¹ No statutory petition process exists to fully restore the right to carry a firearm outside the home after a felony conviction. A gubernatorial pardon would remove the disability, but those are rarely granted for this purpose.

If a Prohibited Weapon Is Seized

When law enforcement recovers a prohibited weapon, it is seized and held as evidence. Disposition is governed by Article 18.19 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure.¹³ Anyone with an ownership interest must appear before a magistrate within 20 days of receiving notice or lose all claim to the property.

If someone contests the forfeiture, the magistrate holds a hearing. The owner carries the burden to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the item is not a prohibited weapon. Courts rarely order return unless the owner can point to a valid exemption, such as active NFA registration for a machine gun or explosive device. Otherwise the weapon is destroyed or retained for law enforcement use.

1
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 46.05 – Prohibited Weapons
2
Office of the Attorney General. Penal Code Offenses by Punishment Range
3
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Chapter 46 – Weapons
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 5845 – Definitions
5
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. National Firearms Act
6
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Bump Stocks
7
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Rare Breed Triggers FRT-15s and Wide Open Triggers WOTs Return
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
9
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. National Firearms Act Division
10
Texas Legislature. 85th Legislature HB 1935 – Introduced Version
11
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 46.04 – Unlawful Possession of Firearm
12
Federal Register. Granting of Relief Federal Firearms Privileges
13
State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 18.19 – Disposition of Seized Weapons