The Associated Press is reporting that 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. 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. "It's strictly a matter of self-defense," said Republican state Sen. Jeff Wentworth. "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."
University of Texas President William Powers has opposed concealed handguns on campus, saying the mix of students, guns and campus parties is too volatile. We were thinking the same thing. Texas is poised to pass a law that will put more students in harm's way based on the culture of drugs and alcohol on college campuses. Can you see someone who is completely hopped up on drugs handling a gun? What about the kid who becomes an angry drunk holding a gun?
I guess they've never heard of "violence begets violence" in Texas. To think that the guns will only be used in self-defense is a crock. People in general society supposedly have guns for self-defense. and how often do you ever hear about someone actually using a gun in self-defense? Maybe we're crazy, but guns on college campuses sound like the worst idea ever. Isn't that why they have local and campus police anyway?
Read more at Yahoo News.
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