RSS

To be Armed Deep in the Heart of Texas

(c) SMS 2011

from Huff Post Texas is preparing to give college students and professors the right to carry guns on campus, adding momentum to a national campaign to open this part of society to firearms.

Just like in neighbouring Louisana (search online for “louisiana concealed carry” to learn more), it is possible to attain a concealed carry permit in Texas. More than half the members of the Texas House have signed on as co-authors of a measure directing universities to allow concealed handguns. The Senate passed a similar bill in 2009 and is expected to do so again. Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who sometimes packs a pistol when he jogs, has said he’s in favor of the idea.

Texas has become a prime battleground for the issue because of its gun culture and its size, with 38 public universities and more than 500,000 students. It would become the second state, following Utah, to pass such a broad-based law. Colorado gives colleges the option and several have allowed handguns.

Supporters of the legislation argue that gun violence on campuses, such as the mass shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007 and Northern Illinois in 2008, show that the best defense against a gunman is students who can shoot back.

“It’s strictly a matter of self-defense,” said state Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio. “I don’t ever want to see repeated on a Texas college campus what happened at Virginia Tech, where some deranged, suicidal madman goes into a building and is able to pick off totally defenseless kids like sitting ducks.”

Until the Virginia Tech incident, the worst college shooting in U.S. history occurred at the University of Texas, when sniper Charles Whitman went to the top of the administration tower in 1966 and killed 16 people and wounded dozens. Last September, a University of Texas student fired several shots from an assault rifle before killing himself.

Similar firearms measures have been proposed in about a dozen other states, but all face strong opposition, especially from college leaders. In Oklahoma, all 25 public college and university presidents declared their opposition to a concealed carry proposal.

“There is no scenario where allowing concealed weapons on college campuses will do anything other than create a more dangerous environment for students, faculty, staff and visitors,” Oklahoma Chancellor of Higher Education Glen Johnson said in January.

University of Texas President William Powers has opposed concealed handguns on campus, saying the mix of students, guns and campus parties is too volatile.


0 Comments Add Yours ↓

  1. Michael Forman #
    1

    Attractive as the thought of TAs patrolling the aisles with AK-47s at the ready during a test might be, I just don’t see how this could make anyone feel safer. Do they think that the body count during any number of campus shootings would have been lower if professors and students had pulled out their own pieces?

  2. theaveeditor #
    2

    Well, if the UDub were to go along, then I think facaulty and staff should be given arms and arms training. At least we should have the right to deduct the costs of buying a glock from our taxes.Glock

  3. 3

    This is a really great blog. Thx to the auther

  4. 4

    Superb article – Just what I needed to get up now