Texas Penal Code § 30.06: Signs, Penalties, and Exemptions

Texas Penal Code Section 30.06 is the trespass statute that lets a private property owner ban concealed carry by handgun license holders. A license holder who enters or stays on the property with a concealed handgun after receiving proper notice commits a Class C misdemeanor with a fine capped at $200. If the license holder is then told in person to leave and refuses, the offense becomes a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.¹

What Triggers a 30.06 Violation

Two things have to be true at the same time. You must be carrying a concealed handgun under the authority of a Texas License to Carry, and you must have received notice that concealed carry on the property is forbidden.¹ Take away the notice and there is no offense. Take away the license and the statute does not apply to you at all, though a different one might.

Notice is valid when it comes from the owner or from someone who appears to have authority to act for the owner: a store manager, a security guard, a building supervisor. The law recognizes two ways to give it, oral and written.¹

What Makes a 30.06 Sign Valid

The formatting rules are strict, and a sign that misses any of them may not qualify as legal notice. A valid sign must display this exact language:

“Pursuant to Section 30.06, Penal Code (trespass by license holder with a concealed handgun), a person licensed under Subchapter H, Chapter 411, Government Code (handgun licensing law), may not enter this property with a concealed handgun.”¹

The text has to appear in both English and Spanish. Letters must be block style, at least one inch tall, and in colors that contrast with the background. The sign must be conspicuous and clearly visible to the public. Most owners place one at every entrance, but the statute’s actual test is conspicuous visibility rather than one-per-door.¹

Written notice can also come as a card or document handed directly to the license holder, provided it carries the identical statutory language. That matters for temporary event venues and private residences where a permanent sign is impractical.

Oral Notice and Leaving Promptly

Oral notice takes effect the moment an owner or their representative tells you in person that concealed carry is not allowed. No sign is required.¹

What you do next decides everything. Section 30.06(g) gives a license holder a defense to prosecution if they received personal oral notice and promptly departed the property.² Leave when told, and you have a statutory shield. Stay and argue, and the offense escalates from a Class C to a Class A misdemeanor.

Penalties

The two tiers turn on how the notice was delivered and what you did after.

Class C misdemeanor: Entering property with a properly posted 30.06 sign while carrying a concealed handgun. Fine capped at $200. No jail time.¹
Class A misdemeanor: After entering, you are personally told to leave and you refuse. Fine up to $4,000, up to a year in county jail, or both.³

The $200 ceiling on the Class C fine is lower than the usual $500 cap for that class, and the statute sets it there deliberately.⁴ The dollar figure is not the real cost, though. The real cost is what a conviction does to your license.

What a Conviction Does to Your License

A Class A charge under 30.06 triggers an automatic license suspension. Texas Government Code Section 411.187 requires the Department of Public Safety to suspend an LTC when the holder is charged with a Class A or Class B misdemeanor, and the suspension lasts until the charges are resolved.⁵

Conviction is worse. DPS revokes the license, and you become ineligible to hold an LTC for five years from the date of conviction. You cannot reapply until two years after the revocation period ends.⁵

A Class C conviction does not trigger automatic suspension. It does create a criminal record tied to a firearms offense, which can surface at renewal and in future background checks.

Who and What 30.06 Does Not Cover

The statute is narrower than many people assume, and the gaps matter.

Permitless Carriers

Since Texas adopted permitless carry in 2021, adults who are legally eligible to possess a handgun can carry without an LTC. A 30.06 sign, by its own terms, applies only to license holders. It does not stop someone carrying without a license.⁶ For unlicensed carriers, an owner needs a separate sign under Section 30.05, the general criminal trespass statute, with its own language and the same English/Spanish, contrasting-color, one-inch-block-letter formatting.⁷ A business that wants to ban all handgun carry needs a 30.05 sign, a 30.06 sign, and a 30.07 sign.

Open Carry

Section 30.07 is the mirror statute for openly carried handguns by license holders. Same formatting rules, same penalty structure, different sign.⁸ A 30.06 sign does not prohibit open carry, and a 30.07 sign does not prohibit concealed carry.

Government Property

Government-owned or government-leased property generally cannot use a 30.06 sign to keep license holders out. The statute carves out an exception: if the property belongs to a governmental entity and is not a place where firearms are already banned under Section 46.03, then 30.06 does not apply.¹ A city office, a state agency lobby, or a county park cannot post a 30.06 sign and enforce it against license holders. When a government entity posts one anyway, Texas Government Code Section 411.209 allows a written complaint and, after an attorney general investigation, civil penalties starting at $1,000 for a first violation and rising to $10,000 or more for later ones.⁹

Employee Parking Lots

An employer’s 30.06 sign on the front door does not reach your locked personal vehicle in the company lot. Texas Labor Code Section 52.061 bars public and private employers from prohibiting employees who lawfully possess a firearm from storing it in a locked, privately owned vehicle in an employer-provided parking area, whether or not the employee holds an LTC.¹⁰ Narrow exceptions exist for company vehicles, oil and gas lease sites, and certain chemical manufacturing plants.

Condominium Residents and Guests

Even if a condominium association posts a 30.06 sign, the statute gives a license holder who is a unit owner, tenant, or guest a defense to prosecution for carrying inside the unit, traveling directly between the unit and a parking area, and storing a handgun in a vehicle in a parking area designated for residents or guests.¹

Places Where Guns Are Banned Anyway

Section 46.03 lists locations where possessing a firearm is a standalone offense with or without a 30.06 sign: school premises and school-sponsored events, polling places on election day and during early voting, courts and court offices, racetracks, secured airport areas, 51-percent alcohol establishments, high school, collegiate, and professional sporting events, correctional and civil commitment facilities, hospitals and nursing facilities, and areas within 1,000 feet of an announced execution site.¹¹ A 46.03 violation is a separate and more serious offense than a 30.06 violation, and an LTC is not a pass into any of them.

1
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 30.06 – Trespass by License Holder with a Concealed Handgun
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State of Texas. Texas Penal Code 30.06 – Trespass by License Holder with a Concealed Handgun
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State of Texas. Texas Penal Code 12.21 – Class A Misdemeanor
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State of Texas. Texas Penal Code 12.23 – Class C Misdemeanor
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Department of Public Safety. Administrative Enforcement Actions FAQs
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Texas State Law Library. Businesses and Private Property
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State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 30.05 – Criminal Trespass
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State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 30.07 – Trespass by License Holder with an Openly Carried Handgun
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State of Texas. Texas Government Code 411.209
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State of Texas. Texas Labor Code Section 52.061 – Restriction on Prohibiting Employee Access to or Storage of a Firearm or Ammunition
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State of Texas. Texas Penal Code 46.03 – Places Weapons Prohibited