The Pflugerville City Council approved an amendment to an ordinance at its meeting Tuesday night that allows concealed carry of handguns in the City Council chambers — an act that was previously prohibited by the council after Texas’ open carry gun law went into effect Jan. 1.

The city had posted signage notifying the public that license holders may not conceal or openly carry handguns into the council chambers when open government meetings were in session.

The Tuesday night amendment passed on a 4-2 vote with Mayor Victor Gonzales and Council Member Starlet Sattler voting against the motion.

"While I’m a firm believer in carrying fire arms legally, and that citizens have the right to bear arms, I’m a little uncomfortable having a policy changed where we have concealed handgun carry in council chambers," Gonzales said.

He said that while people exercising their right to concealed carry may be law-abiding, there are other issues related to proper carrying of a weapon.

The amendment was first requested by Council Member Doug Weiss and was previously discussed at an April 25 council work session.

"It seems a bit onerous if someone is exercising their rights and not doing so in any sort of disruptive manner. I don’t think we should exclude them," Weiss said in April of prohibiting concealed carry.

After the vote, Gonzales jokingly said, "Welcome to the Wild West."

Also at the Tuesday meeting, two slightly different motions regarding proposed changes to the City Council’s rules of order and procedure died from a lack of a majority vote.

The proposed amended rules included extending the length of work sessions, adding an invocation at the beginning of meetings and other procedural changes.

Council members discussed the addition of an invocation, with some expressing reservations about the proposal.

"I fear if we go down this path that we run a number of risks of offending someone," said Council Member Omar Peña.

He said it is possible that someone from a satanic church could speak during the invocation.

Restrictions for the proposed invocation included that speakers had to be Pflugerville residents, speak no more than three minutes and sign up on a list kept by the city secretary.

The proposed addition of an invocation was brought forward by Council Member Mike Heath in April.

Heath said the invocation would reflect the values of the community, and the practice could be reversed if it became problematic. "The purpose was primarily to focus and recall that leadership is service," he said. "I don’t know about you all, but I can always use divine providence when it comes to that."

The first motion on the procedure amendments was made by Weiss to approve the amended rules of order, but remove the invocation from the proposed procedures.

The vote was tied 3-3 and died.

Another motion was made by Heath to approve all changes, including the invocation, but that vote tied 3-3 and also died.

After the meeting, Gonzales said he expects the procedure changes will come back to the council after the new Place 6 seat, created by the passage of Proposition 1 in the November 2016 election, is filled in this November’s election.

Proposition 1 also brought the ability for the mayor to vote on agenda items, which created the tie situation at Tuesday’s meeting.