All things considered, this could have been a lot worse.
Sen. Sylvia Garcia
The Texas Senate took a final vote Saturday to approve legislation requiring the state’s public universities to allow handguns in dorms, classrooms and campus buildings.
Under the latest version of the bill, universities would be able to carve out gun-free zones in locations of their choice — establishing their own rules on where handguns are carried and how they’re stored based on public safety concerns.
Only concealed handgun license holders would be allowed to carry their firearms on campus, and private universities would be allowed to opt out of the requirement all together.
State Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, said his legislation would allow for “very limited, reasonable prohibitions” on handguns in certain locations on university property.
He said his intent was that public college campuses would be as “permissive and accessible” as possible to handgun license holders and that universities would be as “specific and as minimalistic as possible” in defining restricted areas.
The measure was approved along party lines with a 20-11 vote, with all of the chamber’s Democrats opposing it.
While acknowledging that the legislation had improved since its original form, state Sen. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, said she still believed it was “just bad policy.”
She expressed concern that handguns would now be permitted in an environment “already fraught with stress and often fragile emotions.”
I agree with Sen. Garcia and neither support this law nor see any reason to change the status quo. That said, I think if a couple of concealed handgun license holders had challenged the existing law in court, asserting their right to have a gun on a public university campus, I feel pretty confident they’d have won, and I’m not sure I’d have liked this hypothetical ruling any more than I like the new law. As far as private universities go, given all of the other things they are allowed to forbid their students from doing or having, allowing them to opt out seems wise. I’m sure there would be a religious freedom argument to be made if, say, a Quaker-affiliated university was required to allow guns on campus. As things now stand, I’d say the best thing to do is lobby the administration and board of trustees of your alma mater and urge them to adopt as tight a policy as possible.
i am so glad i don’t teach college anymore.
the threats of lawsuits over grades from mommy and daddy and their lawyers were plenty – i can’t imagine having that conversation while wondering if there is a gun in the room.
Keep in mind that the conviction rate for CHL holders is well below that of the general population, which makes it highly unlikely that a CHL holder is going to start shooting people on a college campus. Data for 2013 is at https://www.txdps.state.tx.us/RSD/CHL/Reports/ConvictionRatesReport2013.pdf