Well, I didn't mean they are
deliberately misleading... If I said that, I could be in error. But I think that both the old version and new version of the sign are definitely misleading.
I have been told that the old sign referred to the increase in penalty if you carry beyond one unlawfully. Like, even pre-new-year, if you were carrying a handgun illegally, with no license, and carried beyond a TABC blue sign, then your unlawful carry offense became a felony.
http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/PE/htm/PE.46.htm#46.02 it is a class A misdemeanor unless on any premises licensed or issued a permit by this state for the sale of alcoholic beverages, in which case it is a 3rd degree felony. Yikes! So anyway, that is supposedly what the old version of the sign was referring to, although it obviously failed to convey that information. The new version... I don't know what's up with the new version.
Let me know what you find out, though. Most of the information I've been given was just, you know, talk, without much reference.