## Facts

- Tolbert Wilkinson, M.D., and Suzanne T. Wilkinson filed bankruptcy in Texas, initially under Chapter 13 and later converted to Chapter 7.
- The debtors owned multiple modern firearms and a collection of 17 antique handguns plus a dummy gun.
- In amended schedules, the debtors claimed exemptions for modern guns as “sporting goods and equipment” and the antique collection as “home furnishings, including heirlooms,” under Texas Property Code § 42.002(a).
- The Chapter 7 Trustee objected, contending Texas Property Code § 42.002(a)(7) limits the exemption to “two firearms,” requiring turnover of the remainder.
- After the objection, the debtors amended again, attempting to exempt seven antique guns mounted on plaques and displayed on home walls as decorative items, arguing they were “home furnishings” or “heirlooms,” not “firearms” for purposes of the two-gun cap.

## Issues

1. Whether Texas Property Code § 42.002(a)(7)’s “two firearms” limit can be avoided by claiming additional guns as exempt “home furnishings” or “sporting goods” under § 42.002(a)(1) or (a)(8).
2. Whether antique, wall-mounted, decorative guns are still “firearms” subject to the two-firearm limitation in § 42.002(a)(7).

## Decision

- The court sustained the Trustee’s objection to the claimed firearm exemptions.
- The court held Texas Property Code § 42.002(a)(7) limits a debtor to exempting only two firearms.
- The court rejected efforts to exempt additional guns by categorizing them as “sporting goods” or “home furnishings, including heirlooms.”
- The court concluded that antique, decorative, wall-mounted guns remain “firearms” for purposes of the statutory two-gun limit.
- The practical result was that the debtors could choose two firearms as exempt, and the remaining firearms were nonexempt property of the estate subject to administration by the Trustee.

## Legal Principles

- Under Texas Property Code § 42.002(a)(7), a debtor’s personal property exemption for firearms is capped at two.
- A specific, numerically limited exemption category controls over broader, general categories within the same exemption statute.
- The character of an item as a firearm does not change for exemption purposes because it is antique, historically significant, displayed decoratively, or associated with sport.
- Texas exemption provisions are construed as an integrated statutory scheme that reflects a legislative balance between debtor protection and creditor access to nonexempt assets.

## Conclusion

The bankruptcy court enforced Texas’s two-firearm exemption cap, holding that all guns—modern or antique, functional or decorative—count toward the limit and cannot be insulated from the estate by reclassification as furnishings, heirlooms, or sporting equipment.


In re Wilkinson, 402 B.R. 756 (Bankr. W.D. Tex. 2009)