Texas Senate passes bill allowing school marshals to carry, not lock up, their guns

Eliminating the lockbox requirement for school marshals was one of many suggestions Gov. Greg Abbott outlined for the Legislature in a 43-page plan released weeks after last year's deadly shooting at Santa Fe High School.

After a brief debate, the Texas Senate approved a bill Wednesday that would allow local school boards to let their marshals carry their concealed guns on campuses.

The legislation — Senate Bill 406 by Republican state Sen. Brian Birdwell of Granbury — would eliminate the mandate that trained school marshals, whose identities are kept secret from all but a few local officials, keep their firearms under lock and key.

More specifically, it would give the board of trustees or the governing body of public schools, open-enrollment charter schools, private schools and junior colleges the discretion to decide whether their marshals carry their weapons on their person or in a locked and secured safe.

The measure passed 28-3, with Democratic state Sens. José Menéndez of San Antonio, José Rodríguez of El Paso and Kirk Watson of Austin voting against it. The bill can now be sent to the Texas House for debate.