Verified reporting
Reporting: what was filed
Prefiling for the 90th Texas Legislature opened Monday, November 9, and Democratic lawmakers filed roughly 20 bills seeking new firearm restrictions that day, according to KRLD. The Texan counted 23 gun-related bills, all but one in the House, and KRLD reported that the National Rifle Association counted about 35 firearm-related bills, most aimed at new restrictions.
The centerpiece is House Bill 218 by Rep. Ann Johnson of Houston. According to the introduced text on Texas Legislature Online, a family or household member or a peace officer could apply for an "extreme risk protective order" against a person alleged to pose an immediate danger because of a serious mental illness and access to firearms. A judge could then issue a temporary order "without further notice to the respondent and without a hearing," requiring the person to give up firearms within 24 hours and surrender a handgun license. A hearing would have to follow within 14 days, and a full order, requiring clear and convincing evidence, would last a year and could be renewed. The bill would also repeal Chapter 7C of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the 2025 Anti-Red Flag Act.
Other bills, as described by KRLD, FOX 7 and The Texan: Senate Bill 80 by Sen. Judith Zaffirini of Laredo would make it a state jail felony for anyone under 21 to buy a defined "assault weapon," a category that includes centerfire rifles with a pistol grip, folding stock, threaded barrel or a detachable magazine over 10 rounds. House Bill 173 by Rep. Joe Moody of El Paso would criminalize transferring most semiautomatic rifles to people under 21. House Bill 606 by Rep. Suleman Lalani of Sugar Land would bar anyone under 21 from buying any firearm, and his House Bill 613 would route private transfers through licensed dealers for background checks. Moody's House Bill 659 would require dealers to report certain multiple-gun or magazine purchases to law enforcement.
Legal / factual context
Context: the votes are not there yet
Every one of these measures is only filed. The Legislature convenes January 12, 2027. Democrats won the governor's office and a Texas House majority on November 3, while Republicans kept the Texas Senate, KRLD and The Texan reported. Any bill would need both chambers and the governor's signature. On election night, Sen. Charles Schwertner of Georgetown wrote that "Texas stands as long as the Texas Senate Republican caucus holds the line," as quoted by The Texan.
The repeal target is recent. Senate Bill 1362, signed in 2025 and effective September 1, 2025, bars Texas entities from adopting or enforcing extreme risk protective orders unless state law specifically authorizes them, refuses to give effect to federal orders that infringe due process or the right to bear arms, and makes it a state jail felony to serve or enforce such an order not issued under Texas law. Ordinary family-violence protective orders were left in place.
Texas Gun Rights president Chris McNutt told The Texan, "No confiscation, no registration, no compromise." Supporters of red flag laws argue they remove firearms from people who are a danger to themselves or others; critics say they take property from people never charged with a crime.
Sources and reading
- H.B. 218, 90th Texas Legislature, introduced version (Texas Legislature Online)
Ex parte temporary order without notice or hearing; 24-hour relinquishment; hearing within 14 days; clear and convincing standard; repeal of Chapter 7C. - H.B. 218 bill history (Texas Legislature Online)
Filed Nov. 9, 2026 by Rep. Johnson; last action: filed. - Texas Democrats file about 20 bills seeking new gun restrictions (KRLD, Nov. 12, 2026)
Bill descriptions, NRA count of about 35, session date, chamber control. - Texas Democrats Introduce Deluge of Gun Control Legislation on First Day of Pre-Filing (The Texan, Nov. 10, 2026)
23-bill count; SB 80 definition; McNutt and Schwertner quotations. - Texas lawmakers waste no time filing bills for upcoming session (FOX 7 Austin, Nov. 10, 2026)
1,262 bills and resolutions filed on day one; gun bill summaries. - S.B. 1362, 89th Texas Legislature, enrolled (Anti-Red Flag Act)
Current law that HB 218 would repeal; effective Sept. 1, 2025. - Gonzales, Battle of (Handbook of Texas Online, TSHA)
Cannon dispute, Oct. 2, 1835 skirmish, Constitution of 1824. - Flags of the Texas Revolution (Handbook of Texas Online, TSHA)
Description of the Gonzales 'Come and Take It' flag.
Reporting above is based on the cited records. The section labeled “Our view” is editorial opinion. This article is not legal advice. Our Gadsden Flag is an independent brand, not a government or military organization.
Conservative commentary · Our view
Our View: they told Gonzales to give up the cannon, too
In September 1835 a Mexican commander sent about 100 dragoons to take back a small cannon the settlers of Gonzales had been given for their defense. According to the Handbook of Texas, the colonists refused, and on October 2 they attacked, saying they were fighting to keep their cannon and uphold the Constitution of 1824. They flew a white flag painted with that cannon and the words "Come and Take It." Sixty years earlier, Christopher Gadsden's flag carried the same message: Don't Tread On Me.
HB 218 is drafted more carefully than a slogan, and fairness requires saying so: sworn applications, a 14-day hearing and a clear and convincing standard for a full order. But it still lets a judge strip a citizen of a constitutional right before he hears a word of the accusation, on a one-sided application about his mental health. Liberty does not begin after the hearing. Texas already has involuntary commitment, criminal charges and family-violence protective orders, all with real process.
Barring 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds who can vote, sign contracts and be sent to war from buying rifles, or any gun at all, deserves the same skepticism, and sending police the names of people who buy several guns or magazines in a week builds the kind of list free people learned to fear. Texans gave Democrats a House majority, not a mandate to rewrite the Bill of Rights. The Senate should hold the line, and every gun owner should read these bills now, while they are still only paper. Come and take it was never a threat. It was a statement about who the rights belong to.