AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott declined to say Tuesday whether he supports a controversial bill that would let people carry handguns in public without a license.

The bill, which has the National Rifle Association’s blessing but is opposed by some police chiefs, passed the House Thursday in an 87-58 vote that fell largely along party lines.

Abbott ducked taking a position on House Bill 1927 after he voted early in a local election in which the Republican governor said he voted for a ballot measure that would reinstate a ban on camping by homeless people.

Abbott has excoriated Austin’s leaders for creating what he considers unacceptable disorder in 2019 when they sought to stop issuing thousands of citations to people by expanding areas in which sleeping overnight outdoors was permitted.

“Constitutional carry,” as it’s called by supporters, who say the government shouldn’t restrict people’s toting of guns in any fashion, had gained little momentum in Texas until this year. On Monday, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said the measure didn’t have the votes to pass the GOP-controlled Senate.

Patrick, who didn’t make “permitless carry” one of his 30 priority bills for this year’s session, said he would meet with both supporters and critics of the proposal “to see if we can find a path that a majority of senators will vote to pass.” If that effort succeeds, he, as the chamber’s presiding officer, “will move it,” Patrick said in a written statement.

Critics, including several police chiefs and firearms instructors, warn that letting untrained people carry loaded guns in public places would be dangerous and could lead to deadly accidents.

Under the bill, anyone 21 or older who could legally have a handgun could carry it publicly without first passing the safety course and background check that are required now. About 1.6 million Texans are currently licensed to carry.

Abbott, who didn’t make scrapping the licenses an emergency item for the session, designated five other topics for prompt action in his Feb. 1 State of the State speech. They were expanding broadband service, banning local moves to defund police, bail reform, election integrity and a shield for employers against COVID-19 liability.

Asked if he wanted to see HB 1927 advance to his desk and whether he would sign it if it did, Abbott replied: “You know, I and my office, we’re looking at all of these bills as they are working their way through the Capitol. And while we are working to see what happens with legislation like that, what I am focusing on are the items that I listed as emergency items [enumerated] in my State of the State address.”

Referring to his power as governor to summon lawmakers back to Austin for an overtime session if he’s dissatisfied with their work, Abbott continued: “One thing that I’ve made clear, and that is in order to avoid a special session, we have to pass the emergency items. We have to pass the items that I talked about in my State of the State. And so we’re working to make sure that those issues are positioned in a way we can get them across the finish line.”

In his State of the State speech, Abbott boasted that in the 2019 session, “I signed 10 laws to protect gun rights in Texas.”

He urged lawmakers this year to pass legislation declaring Texas a “Second Amendment sanctuary state,” which he said is needed to bar “any government office anywhere from treading on gun rights in Texas.”

GOP Rep. Justin Holland of Rockwall has introduced HB 2622, the “Second Amendment Sanctuary State Act,” which prohibits the enforcement of certain federal regulations on firearms, firearm accessories or ammunition that are not in state law.

Earlier this month, the measure made it out of the House State Affairs Committee. It is awaiting action by the Calendars Committee, which holds or advances bills to the full chamber. A similar bill by Muenster Republican Sen. Drew Springer, SB 541, has not been heard in committee.

The debate over permitless carry comes after a string of mass shootings prompted President Joe Biden to push for tighter gun laws. The current legislative session is the first since gunmen killed 30 people in El Paso and Midland-Odessa in back-to-back mass shootings in August 2019.

Abbott, who took questions on three topics before ending his brief Q&A, did not mention recent mass shootings in the U.S., including an April 3 incident in Allen, a Dallas suburb, in which authorities say two brothers killed four family members and themselves.

On another matter, Abbott chided the Biden administration for its decision Friday to rescind a Jan. 15 grant by the Trump administration of a 10-year extension of a waiver of federal Medicaid rules. The waiver would provide Texas with $11 billion a year in supplemental federal Medicaid money to demonstrate alternative ways to fund the care of uninsured people.

Texas can still negotiate with federal officials, but the Trump officials erred in not conducting a required process allowing for public notice and comment, wrote Liz Richter, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Abbott, as he has since Friday, said Tuesday that the move would hurt Texans, and especially rural hospitals.

“It seems capricious, what the Biden administration did,” he said. “There were other states that were granted this 10-year waiver that Texas got. So one thing that is abundantly clear, and that is the Biden administration has acted … in a way that harms access to health care by people in Texas.”