City of Houston 2023 Legislative Report

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Assistant Chief Jessica Anderson Support HB 165
March 21, 2023

Public Safety Graphic House Bill 165 - Mass Shooting

The City of Houston’s One Safe Houston Initiative is Mayor Turner’s approach to reducing all violent crime within the City of Houston. As a part of this initiative, there has been a large focus on especially ending gun violence. House Bill 165 is an important step in deterring people from becoming mass shooters.

Under current law, scenes where four or more people are targeted or injured that do not result in the death of victims are only charged as assaults with a deadly weapon —categorized as a second-degree felony.

Additionally, these offenses cannot be stacked so sentences are not served consecutively, despite being part of the same series of events.

House Bill 165 better defines these incidents by defining what constitutes as a “mass shooting,” and attaches the necessary and appropriate punishments for attacks like these.

House Bill 165 defines a “mass shooting” as:

(30-a) "Mass shooting" means a person ’s discharge of a firearm to cause serious bodily injury or death, or to attempt to cause serious bodily injury or death, to four or more persons:
(A) During the same criminal transaction; or
(B) During different criminal transactions but pursuant to the same scheme or course of conduct.

Shootings at mass gatherings are a problem within the City of Houston and often occur at bars, night clubs, large parties, and in apartment complexes by gangs in the form of drive-by shootings. In many of the cases, the victims are innocent bystanders. With the passage of HB 165 HPD will have another tool to arrest violent offenders.