By:  Cain                                             H.B. No. 1663
       73R2870 DRH-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the creation of the offense of discharging a firearm in
    1-3  certain metropolitan areas.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Chapter 42, Penal Code, is amended by adding
    1-6  Section 42.015 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 42.015.  DISCHARGE OF FIREARM IN CERTAIN METROPOLITAN
    1-8  AREAS.  (a)  A person commits an offense if the person recklessly
    1-9  discharges a firearm inside the corporate limits of a municipality
   1-10  having a population of 100,000 or more, according to the most
   1-11  recent federal census.
   1-12        (b)  An offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor.
   1-13        (c)  If conduct constituting an offense under this section
   1-14  also constitutes an offense under another section of this code, the
   1-15  person may be prosecuted under either section.
   1-16        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   1-17        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-18  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-19  emergency   and   an   imperative   public   necessity   that   the
   1-20  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-21  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.