By Hunter                                             H.B. No. 3789
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to a defense to prosecution for certain weapons offenses.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 46.15, Penal Code, is amended by adding
 1-5     Subsection (e) to read as follows:
 1-6           (e)  The provisions of Section 46.02 prohibiting the carrying
 1-7     of a club do not apply to a disabled individual.  In this
 1-8     subsection, "disabled individual" means a person 17 years of age or
 1-9     older who by reason of physical disease, defect, or injury is
1-10     substantially unable to protect himself from harm without the use
1-11     of a weapon such as a club.
1-12           SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
1-13     only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this
1-14     Act.  For purposes of this section, an offense is committed before
1-15     the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs
1-16     before the effective date.
1-17           (b)  An offense committed before the effective date of this
1-18     Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,
1-19     and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
1-20           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-21           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-22     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-23     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-24     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-1     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.