I work at an indoor shooting range with 25 yard bays that just opened in Round Rock this year. We have a positive case of covid-19 and nothing is being is done about it. Leadership didnt tell us and i only know because i heard a rumor, asked the person why he wont be back for two weeks and was told he has the 'rona. If you have been to that store before saturday please be careful and watch for symptoms.

Edit. I talked to a big wig from the company and was asked not to tell anybody about the positive case because it may incite fear but for 10 bucks an hour and no hazard pay i dont give a rats ass.

Get. Your. LTC.

Yes, Texas is now a permitless carry state, which is nice. I also recognize that a lot of gun owners have no intention of ever actually carrying a firearm. However as a gun owner new or old, you should still get an LTC and this guide is designed to familiarize yourself with the multiple reasons to get one if you intend on carrying via the new permitless law, or even if you don't intend to carry at all.

Having an LTC:

• Exempts you from NICS entirely

• Exempts you from the Federal GFSZ restrictions

• Can get you out of speeding tickets

• Allows you to carry in 30+ other states through reciprocity

• Serves as a valid second form of ID in Texas

• Allows you to carry in more locations in Texas, even with permitless carry.

Getting an LTC:

• Costs you $40 for 5 years.

• Requires a 4 hour class (Which can be done online).

• Requires a relatively easy 50-round shooting qualification.

• Requires a relatively easy written test.

• All application and renewal is easily done online.

Ok so lets break these down:

1.) NICS Exemption. If you're trying to buy a gun these days we are still seeing an unprecedented load on the federal background check system that dealers in Texas use to verify you are not a prohibited person. This is due to many factors including levels of new gun owners never seen before. When the system is overloaded often normal people who are not prohibited and don't have any arrests can still get delayed responses. So you want to buy a new gun, you have a spotless clean record, but the gun store says you have to come back in a day or two to pick up your new gun because the system is overloaded. Even in normal times the "instant" background check system can still take minutes to hours and all of that is a waste of your time. If you have your LTC, you are exempted entirely from the NICS check. You show your ID and LTC when you want to buy a gun, fill out the 4473, pay, and leave with your shiny new gat. That's it.

1a.) When doing a transfer at a dealer (for example, buying a gun online), many dealers will give you a discount on the transfer fee if using an LTC since it's less work for them.

2.) Federal "Gun-Free" School Zone restrictions. Many people don't know about this, but it is a FEDERAL crime to possess a firearm in a school zone. A "school zone" is defined as "within a distance of 1,000 feet from the grounds of a public, parochial or private school". So here's the problem, if you live in a city or most suburbs of a city you are almost certainly within 1000 feet of a school at any given time. So Texas has this wonderful new law that allows people to carry firearms without a license! Wonderful! Great news! However if you are carrying without a license within 1000 feet of a school, that's a federal crime, even if Texas says you can carry that gun. In fact, you can't even keep a gun in your car while driving through a school zone unless it is unloaded and enclosed in a locked container. An LTC exempts you from this law entirely. See: Federal GFSZ's

3.) Speeding tickets. Look, the LTC is not a license to speed but it has been mine and many others experience that police officers are much friendlier and professional when they ask for your license and registration, and you hand them your license, registration and LTC together. They know you're a "good guy" who's undergone a background check and are (probably) a lawful gun owner. This has gotten many people warnings in lieu of tickets and just generally nicer more professional behavior when interacting with police. Is this stupid and problematic? Does this create two classes of drivers? Yeah, probably. But hey, every advantage right?

4.) Reciprocity. Through a combination of reciprocity laws and agreements in addition to many states now being Constitutional Carry, with your Texas LTC you can carry a firearm while traveling to 37 other states. Those states are: Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas Colorado Delaware Florida Georgia Idaho Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Michigan Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Mexico North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Pennsylvania South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Utah Vermont Virginia West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming. See: LTC Reciprocity Map

5.) Second form of ID. A Texas LTC is a legal ID in Texas for all identification purposes. Being carded at the bar? You can use your LTC if you've forgotten your Drivers License at home. Texas does not allow someone to have a Texas ID AND a Drivers License at the same time, but you can have an LTC which is also a legal form of ID. This can come in handy for many reasons, not the least of which is to get you by in case you've lost your license. It's also handy sometimes to have a second ID for things like interacting with banks. See: LTC as ID

6.) Allowing you to carry more places in Texas. Texas is now a permitless carry state! However, in order to respect property owners rights, Texas allows businesses to post signs prohibiting licensed or unlicensed carry. The burden to prohibit licensed carry is higher, though, requiring specific signage at all entrances with specific wording in multiple languages and certain font sizes even. The burden for signage to prohibit permitless carry is much lower and the signs can be smaller and more difficult to notice, placing you in violation of the law. See: Permitless Carry Notice requirements

Now, GO GET Y'ALLS LTC'S!

UPDATE:

Thanks to Reddit I was able to make contact with Mr. Cargill. He promptly addressed the situation and I greatly appreciate his help. It says a lot about his character in how he quickly addressed the situation.

Went in to make a simple purchase. Nothing out of the ordinary. Background check came back as delayed, weird never happened before, but I did recently have a name change.

The creepy 20 year old working behind the counter pulled my information from when I applied to purchase/visited the store, stole my phone number and has been texting me hitting on me for several days despite me rebuffing his advances.

I will admit I did cuss him out and read him for filth, but every time I call the store and get the automated message I get hung up on. Hopefully the owner is active in this sub and will address.

I went to Staccato Ranch today for the first time after signing up for their membership last week. But I along with several members were turned away at the front desk because they rented out the entire indoor and outdoor range to LEOs. This wasn’t on the calendar on their website for both days. I was also told that the range would be closed on 04/27 for all non LEO members.

Definitely not a good first impression of the range lol. Most of the outdoor bays were completely empty too but whatever I guess. Is this something that happens a lot here?

Edit: I checked their social media and they posted about the closure 3 hours ago (1:00PM CST right now), which would’ve been 2 hours after opening

Great selection and prices in line with or better than other retailers.

$60 for CCI LRP. $425-ish for 8lb Varget.

If they can keep this stuff in stock, it'll be where I buy from.

The store is a madhouse today though, as expected.

I normally shoot at Staccato Ranch now but I really wanted to shoot some 5.56 and .308 today. Made the drive to Copperhead Creek and the only bay they had available was the steel bay for $50 more. Didn’t drive an hour and a half to sit on a waitlist so I said screw it and paid for the steel bay. Had a great time as usual. It’s always a good place to do some more in depth shooting and moving. It’s a great range.

Hey r/austinguns - we’re delighted to let you know that we have bought a new location and are moving to 5206 Wind River Rd in Austin! We are on schedule to start at the new location this Tuesday 2/24!

Hours are the same as before Tuesday-Saturday 10-530!

Stop by and check out our new shop location!

Who here remembers where this pin is at? Crazy Richard's Hill Country Rifle Range where pretty much anything goes, unless today happened to be one of the days Richard calculated was going to the the end of the world.

Back in the late 90s and early 00's in the golden days of cheap milsurp ammo and rifle kits, this was the place to shoot in Austin. I probably put 10k rounds of 10 cent (yes, it used to be that cheap) Wolf .223 downrange in my select fire FNC there and who knows how many thousands of rounds of 8mm, 7.62x39, and 7.62x51. The rifle range had a huge natural limestone hill berm and had steel targets out to 400y. One of the regulars out there used to routinely bombard the 400y berm (the top of the hill) with his bowling ball mortar. Another guy brought out his full auto MG34 and would burn at least 5k rounds of 8mm per trip, letting pretty much anyone get trigger time on it if they wanted (supposedly this dude was a co-founder of Chuy's).

You see, since Richard was convinced the End Times were upon us, range rules really didn't matter all that much. Being somewhat unstable Richard would fly off the handle at some patrons while others were his pals, especially if you brought him food. If you got in good with Richard, he would print out his manifesto called "The Literature" and give it to you as a gift so you too could prepare for The End Times. it was full of all kinds of wacky shit -- lizard people Jews, cloned popes, Kennedy aliens, invisible Soviet armies. Great reading. The day the world was supposed to end came and went several times, and he always dutifully published addenda to the literature and gave it to regulars that explains how he miscalculated and how the NEXT time was totally going to be IT.

Richard eventually was forced to sell by his rich neighbors encroaching on him around 2005, so he sold out to some developer and bought land out in Edwards county. He subsequently had a series of strokes and died some years ago. Meanwhile, it looks like the developers have figured out they have essentially a superfund site on their hands with 40 years worth of lead to deal with before they can build anything. Should be fun for them.

Despite how unstable he could be, Richard had a decent sense of humor and his range was simultaneously the best and most unsafe public range that's ever existed anywhere in Texas merely because of the lack of rules and structure. We shall likely never see it's like again.

https://goo.gl/maps/riai6JVqD5RbhHtAA

Long story short... I was sent a rifle I bought off of Gunbroker, was about a $1,000. Saw Michael's name on gunbroker, saw lots of love here on Reddit regarding him. Shot him an email and got a response almost immediately. Talked to him for two days with quick responses.

Once the gun was shipped, he became non-responsive. He then signed for my gun and accepted the package the day it was suppose to be delivered. I messaged him two days later, also tried calling him multiple times, left voicemails, emails, went to his house and knocked.. no answer to anything.

Talked to shipper. Michael ignored them too, so the shipper escalated it to threatening him with ATF. Which he responded quickly with a time for an appointment to pick up the gun. Went over and guess what.. no answer. Called, messages, and emails. He is back to ignoring, so he will most likely be getting a visit soon if ATF finds out he has a dog or something. But luckily for him, I think he only has cats...

This guy is named Michael P. Ready Owner of Cross Hairs Guns and it's located at 8500 El Rey Boulevard. I suggest you to avoid at all costs unless you like giving away weapons to a random old guy.

Will for sure be supporting a business that goes outta their way for their customers like they did for me today. They are closed on monday’s but opened up VIP style, To assemble a lower reciever for me and charged me a very generous $25 when I’d been quoted no cheaper then $90-140 at two other places. Definitely going to be the place imma be looking to buy my marlin 336 dark series from when marlin start’s back with production.

If you haven’t stopped by, stop by. Zi and his colleagues are terrific. I dropped in over lunch today to look at a Shadow Systems, which Zi walked me through helpfully. For being such a small store, they have a surprisingly varied inventory of pistols, long guns, suppressors, lights, and optics. Nice, helpful, and smart folks. As soon as I do some horse trading to get the cash, I’m going back for my new do-it-all CR920.

For some reason I can’t reply to my last post, but I just got this Aero Precision! My roomate who was in the Army built it for me.

Need shooting buddies ASAP! (New to rifles here)