Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against a county for refusing to enforce the state’s licensed carry law.
Paxton filed the lawsuit against Waller County late Monday night. He previously filed a similar lawsuit against the city of Austin.
Waller County was given final notice several weeks ago to comply with the state law but officials refused, according to the AG’s office.
The lawsuit requires the county to allow citizens to lawfully carry firearms in areas of the Waller County Courthouse where there are nonjudicial county administrative offices.
“A local government cannot be allowed to flout Texas’s licensed carry laws, or any state law, simply because it disagrees with the law or doesn’t feel like honoring it,” said Paxton in a prepared statement on Tuesday. “I will vigilantly protect and preserve the Second Amendment rights of Texans.”
Texas’ licensed carry laws allow government entities to exclude handguns from the portion of a building that houses an office utilized by a government court. Paxton’s lawsuit explains that county treasurers’ offices and elections’ offices do not qualify as offices utilized by a government court.
The lawsuit asks the court to issue a writ of mandamus against the county and its officials to comply with the state law and also award “civil penalties in the amount of $1,500 per day of violation commencing on August 29, 2016.”