2025 Texas sessionsRegular and both called sessions have ended. This index covers House and Senate bills, not resolutions. Statuses come from official reports.

2025 · Regular session · House bill

HB3053

Read bill highlights ↓

Official caption: Relating to municipal and county firearm buyback programs.

Signed by governorSource-checked explanation published

Official report lists House author(s): Virdell, Cain, Hickland, Louderback, Ashby. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.

Report an error ↗

Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.

Bill highlights

Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.

HB3053 prohibits a Texas city or county from adopting or enforcing a measure under which it organizes, sponsors or participates in a firearm-purchase program intended to remove guns from circulation, reduce civilian gun ownership, or let people sell guns without fear of criminal prosecution.
The law targets municipal and county involvement in programs with those purposes.
It took effect September 1, 2025, not immediately upon signing: the recorded votes did not reach the two-thirds threshold required for immediate effect.

Read the full explanation ↓

What does it do?

HB3053 prohibits a Texas city or county from adopting or enforcing a measure under which it organizes, sponsors or participates in a firearm-purchase program intended to remove guns from circulation, reduce civilian gun ownership, or let people sell guns without fear of criminal prosecution. A purchase offer is covered even before a gun is bought. The prohibition is not limited to programs funded entirely by local tax dollars: sponsorship and participation are also named. Final law.

The law targets municipal and county involvement in programs with those purposes. It does not itself ban every private firearm transaction or every government purchase of a firearm. Nor does it grant immunity to someone selling or surrendering a gun. This two-section act adds no new criminal offense, fine schedule or private damages remedy.

It took effect September 1, 2025, not immediately upon signing: the recorded votes did not reach the two-thirds threshold required for immediate effect. The governor signed June 20, 2025. The House passed it 85–56 and the Senate 20–11. Official history.

What changed along the way?

The filed bill, House committee printing, House-passed version, Senate printing and final law have the same substantive prohibition and effective-date clause. The official amendment index lists no amendments. Text versions.

For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.

Official bill versions

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?

People opposed to local-government firearm buybacks gain a statewide restriction on those programs. Cities and counties lose that option for pursuing gun-removal or related public-safety goals, and residents who wanted to sell through a covered local program lose that avenue. These are the law’s direct practical tradeoffs, not evidence that buybacks increase or decrease crime.

The May 21 fiscal note anticipates no state fiscal impact and no significant local-government fiscal impact. It does not measure changes in gun violence, private firearm prices or the value of particular local programs. The bill makes no appropriation.

Official sources

Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.