Beside that, UT is hardly suffering for applicants.
Dragonmom, as I understand, there are 2 bills up – an open carry bill AND a concealed carry bill specifically on college campuses. It is the second bill I am concerned about, with regard to how it actually works on college campuses.
Does this mean a student can, with a license, walk into classrooms, labs, dining halls, dorm rooms, etc. with a gun in his/her backpack?
Sounds like private universities (including Rice?) are exempt from the law which only applies to public universities. http://www.texastribune.org/2015/05/31/campus-carry-bill-heads-gov-abbott/
Oregon and Wisconsin changed their law and as of August, 2013, they no longer allow firearms on state college or university campuses.
I just looked up KU (University of Kansas) policy. “In accordance with long-standing Board of Regents and University of Kansas administrative policies, the University prohibits students, employees, and visitors from possessing, carrying or using weapons of any type on property owned by or under the control of the University. This policy applies to all students, including those licensed for concealed carry of handguns.”
The state tends to be pro-gun. (I am not a gun owner, fwiw. I would never want a gun in my house.)
I live in a city (of about 200K) where open carry is legal since 2013. I’ve never seen anyone carrying a gun–except police officers. I looked up the local community college policy. For now they only have to have a “no guns” sign on all doors. But after 2017, they have to provide “adequate security measures” to prohibit guns on campus. This means they may only have the option of putting metal detectors on all 123 entrances to all buildings OR allowing guns on campus after that time. Honestly, I don’t think anything will change because the vast majority of people would not want to take a gun on campus. Those who are determined to break the rules are already doing it.
@awcntdb There is a 3rd category of person, the previously law abiding citizen who becomes a criminal in an instant, by exercising poor judgment, or poor impulse control. It may be a student who carries into the theater at the student union fully intending to protect himself and his friends from potential criminals, but instead becomes angry at a texting patron and shoots him dead.
And a fourth, the student who doesn’t secure the gun properly, someone else picks it up, and something bad happens. (I’m always amazed each year, for example, by the number of guns confiscated at our local airport because travellers have forgotten that they even have them in their bags. Many college students don’t do any better in managing their belongings.)
It just seems like a terrible idea to me.
With all the threads about campus rape, now let’s see how having guns helps that @@. Now you don’t just have to block the door to prevent the girl from leaving - you can point a gun at her too! Woo hoo!
Who carries a gun anyway other than rednecks and thugs?
Hunters, pizzagirl. I grew up in Texas and, while I neither hunt nor carry a gun, know plenty of families who hunt as a sport. I would not categorize them as rednecks or thugs.
I get carrying the gun on your way to actually hunting. I’m talking about carrying your gun around town - to the grocery store or coffee shop or drycleaners. My state just changed its carry laws and now there are little signs on the front of many stores with a no-guns-allowed sign which made me scratch my head and wonder - are there really areas where normal, law-abiding people just carry their guns around them as they go about their daily business? Insane.
I heard on the radio this morning that this bill allows Universities to “opt out,” so to speak. I will be interested to see how this plays out.
The thought of even living in a state which allows open carry makes me shudder and guns on campuses - either open carry or concealed would not have been considered by my kid. I hate guns and if I was a benevolent dictator I would ban all guns for civilians. Since, I am not - I just refuse to live in any state which has nutty gun laws. And no, I don’t give a rat’s bum about the 2nd Amendment.
Yeah, I’d be fine with repealing the 2nd Amendment.
Retired law enforcement officers.
From the Texas Tribune: “Under the final version of the bill, universities and colleges will still be able to establish their own rules on where handguns are carried and how they’re stored based on public safety concerns. Only concealed handgun license holders — who must be at least 21 years old — would be allowed to carry their firearms on campus, and private universities would be allowed to opt out of the requirement altogether.”
So private universities can opt out… that is better than the original bill. However:
“The language that would have required private universities to allow handguns on campus was stripped out by the bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, during negotiations between the two chambers…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 bill would not, Birdwell said, allow for universities to exempt entire dormitories or buildings from the requirement based on a technicality.”
I am still trying to understand how colleges in states that already allow guns on campus manage this. Do students really bring their guns and keep them in the non-exempt section of the dormitory?
Grade inflation is going to go to the roof
Another poster mentioned also hunters and the like. However, there are lots more categories of people who carry guns.
- About 40% of top company executives.
- Many women who have been randomly assaulted. They make up, at least, 25% of my certification classes each year.
- Lots of women who have had to get restraining orders against former significant others and have decided they are not going to take the chance that they get killed while waiting for police to show up. 3 to 10 minutes is a long time, while under attack, assuming one actually gets to make the 911 call and actually talk to say where you are.
- All top celebrities - Oh, they do not count to most because people do not see the guns, as they are held by the security guards the celebrities can hire. And the paparazzi also coyly take pictures where one cannot see the heavy security, so people think the celeb is just walking around.
- More politicians than anyone would believe. It crosses party lines equally.
- Law-abiding minorities who live in high crime areas who are not putting their lives in the hands of police. Again, police are only there after the fact. Only rarely are police available during the most dangerous period of an attack.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/man-carjacker-bed-woke-stupid-article-1.2232405
These people above all have legitimate reasons and are no way considered rednecks and thugs. But, if you live and think in a bubble, then only rednecks and thugs carry guns on a regular basis.
What is truly ironic is given the number of concealed carry permits issued nationwide, there are many times more regular citizens walking arounds with guns than there are rednecks and thugs with guns. Standard population demographics dictate that must be the case.
I personally don’t think college students are going to start packing to attend class, regardless of this bill. I don’t believe they perceive most college campuses as places where they need that kind of protection. Perhaps at home, but most 21s and over do not still live in the dorms.
I am totally against this bill, angry it was passed, and don’t believe these state congressmen are acting on any expressed mandate of the people. However, I don’t think this is actually going to change life to any big degree.
My understanding is that some colleges have already indicated they will opt out of this. I believe other states with these laws also allow colleges to opt out…and many have.
After the college shootings that have taken place, you would have to be nuts as a college president to allow this.
As I’ve said before, if you allow guns on campus, frat guys will be shooting beer cans off of each other’s heads.
In my opinion, anybody who thinks concealed weapons will make a college campus safer is nuts.
As you know, I grew up in Texas, and I can tell you stories that you wouldn’t believe. I know of one family alone, where their members alone have been involved in two shootings/suicides and one attempted murder (no one’s in jail for any of these). I know my sister-in-law now packs (she’s around 68 years old) all the time because she was the victim of a robbery in her home about five years ago when someone followed her home from the grocery store to steal her $20,000 Gucci watch she was wearing. After our burglary at home last summer, she told me I should buy a gun and have my brother teach me to shoot. Um… no. One thing I learned about myself in that burglary was, I do not think clearly when in an unexpected traumatic moment - I could barely get the words out of my mouth on the phone with the 911 dispatcher. I could have just as easily shot my husband as the burglar had I had a gun.
That being said, I know a lot of people in Texas who only have guns for hunting. They stay locked up and away unless they’re on their way to the deer lease or duck lease.