HB108

HB108 increases punishment when a defendant uses metal or body armor during a covered offense against a person and that fact is proved beyond a reasonable doubt. It is a sentencing enhancement, not a general ban on owning body armor. “Metal or body armor” uses the existing definition: a body covering designed, made or adapted to protect against gunfire. Final law; Penal Code Section 46.041.

The new finding applies to an offense under Penal Code Title 5, “Offenses Against the Person,” punishable as “a felony of the third degree or any higher category of offense, other than a felony of the first degree.” At the guilt-or-innocence stage, the judge or jury deciding the facts must find the armor use beyond a reasonable doubt. The judge must then record the affirmative finding in the judgment. The statute says use during the offense, not mere ownership unrelated to it. Final law, Sections 1–2.

When that finding is made, punishment increases to the range for the next higher offense category. For ordinary covered third-degree and second-degree felony cases, the standard imprisonment ranges illustrate the effect:

• Third-degree punishment ordinarily ranges from 2 to 10 years; the next higher, second-degree range is 2 to 20 years.
• Second-degree punishment ordinarily ranges from 2 to 20 years; the first-degree range is 5 to 99 years or life.

These are statutory range comparisons, not a prediction of a particular sentence; other sentencing provisions can matter. First-degree felonies are expressly excluded from the new finding. The wording quoted above should not be replaced with a claim that every felony is covered, and the bill supplies no new punishment category above a capital felony. Final law, Sections 2–3; Penal Code Sections 12.04 and 12.32–.34.

Three groups are excluded from this particular finding: peace officers as legally defined, members of the state military forces or U.S. armed forces, and security officers as legally defined. The exemption text is based on those statuses and does not say it applies only while on duty. It is not immunity from prosecution for the underlying offense. Final law, Article 42.01992(b).

Signed June 20, 2025, the law took effect September 1, 2025. It applies only to offenses committed on or after that date; if any element occurred earlier, the former law governs. The separate existing offense of a convicted felon’s possession of body armor is not newly created by HB108. History; final law, Sections 4–5; existing possession statute.