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Texas considers concealed carry on campuses [ONLINE EXCLUSIVE]
Gun laws spark debate over public safety
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A current rule upheld by the University of Texas’ code of conduct that prohibits guns on campus may be overruled by the Texas legislature if the vote to allow concealed carry on campus succeeds in an April vote.
If approved, the current law allowing licensed individuals over the age of 21 to carry handguns in the state of Texas would be extended to include all Texas colleges and universities, according to Katie Kasprzak, Students for Concealed Carry on Campus Organization in Texas spokesperson.
“We feel those people should not be prohibited (in) their right to self-defense on college campuses,” Kasprzak said.
According to Kasprzak, the university is not advocating the change to its current code of conduct, but Texas state governor Rick Perry said he would sign the bill “in an instant” if it successfully passed through the state legislature.
Jeri Bonavia, executive director of the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort, said she opposes the idea behind the Texas proposal.
“Research has shown (the) carrying of concealed weapons doesn’t do the two things proponents claim, and that’s to increase personal protection and increase public safety,” Bonavia said.
Bonavia added a decrease in personal safety and an increase in crime have been statistically proven among states that legally allow the carrying of concealed weapons.
“Given what we know, it doesn’t make sense that states have legalized the carrying of concealed weapons. It’s not good public policy and it’s not terribly helpful, so across the board, it doesn’t make sense,” Bonavia said.
Bonavia said legalizing gun carrying on campus would mimic and possibly exceed the destructive patterns seen by gun-carriers off-campus.
Bonavia said the increase in gun-inflicted harm would derive from the stress-filled, high-emotion setting of college campuses. The tendency for binge drinking among college students would result in further gun-related violence, she added.
Kasprzak said such problems would not exist since current law prohibits anyone under the influence of alcohol to carry a gun.
“College kids may drink, but college kids are not the same ones that are carrying [guns] throughout their day-to-day lives,” Kasprzak said. “The kids that carry are over 21 and go to bars off-campus already and are still following the law and would continue to do so on campus.”
Wisconsin and Illinois are currently the only two states that prohibit gun carrying of any kind.
Bret Bostwick, former member of the Students for Concealed Carry on Campus at the University of Wisconsin, said the Wisconsin chapter of the organization founded last year has been unsuccessful in its efforts.
“Because in Wisconsin there’s not a general concealed carry law, it was kind of a double hurdle for us to get guns allowed on campus,” Bostwick said.
Bostwick added a lot of the initial group members have refocused their efforts on changing Wisconsin state law.
Though efforts are still present, Bostwick said he doesn’t think gun control in the state of Wisconsin will be legalized anytime soon.
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Guns should not be allowed on a college campus no matter what age. For saftey reasons there are some kids who go to college for the wrong reasons and also they sometimes let their anger get to them even if it’s an accident guns should not be allowed.
You are an idiot. Do you honestly think that if someone is in the mind set to murder, they’re really going to be disuaded becuase the law indicates they can’t carry a gun into a building? “Darn it! I’m not allowed to carry this gun into the school to kill all the other students. I’ll just leave my gun here in the car, then go in and strangle everyone to death. The last thing I want to do is break the law.” Seriously….
The only thing that is going to be able to stop someone from going on a killing spree is another individual with a gun who is willing to step forward and make the killer stop. By creating a law that forbids guns, you are only preventing law abiding citizens from carrying guns. Criminal by definition do not obey the law. All a law is going to do is guarantee that a criminal will be able to kill without any resistance.
Taylor Cox should try to get some balance in his stories and some fact checking might help too.
First, half the ink in this story is large quotes from the anti-gun side. How about you interview someone from the other side? Maybe even someone from Texas instead of Wisconsin.
Second, the anti-gun side got their facts just plain wrong. Only one study has shown that conceal carry MIGHT cause a rise in violent crime rates. But, on the other side, at least a dozen studies have concluded that conceal carry significantly reduces overall violent crime.
Also, in Wisconsin even though CONCEAl carry is prohibited it is a state constitutional right to open carry a firearm. Only Illinois bans most citizens from carrying a firearm.
Guns should definately be allowed on campus if that person posseses a valid Texas Concealed Handgun License because this group of citizens has been shown to commit less than 1% of the crime, so therefore these are high standing citizens, not your typical college kids.
I love how the take our rights away liberals never seem to tell the truth. There has NEVER been a study that proves concealed carry by law-abiding citizens has EVER increased violence. In fact, quite the contrary. In every reliable study ever conducted, the conclusions have always been the same: people defending themselves with a gun are almost never seriously injured as a result, compared to the better than 50 percent of victims who don’t resist, or those that resist with something other than a gun. Also, in EVERY state that has passed a concealed carry law the crime rate has dropped significantly and IMMEDIATELY. Also, those that have concealed carry licenses, taken as a group, have a crime rate of less than 1% of the national average for everyone else. If everyone was a responsible as those with CHLs, nobody, even the cops, would need guns. Problem is, it’s not going to happen. Also, these “studies” never take into consideration the more than 2.5 million cases per year of people using guns to defend themselves and others, in most cases never firing a shot. The threat of immediate death is a deterrent to criminals as well as the rest of us.
Stick those facts in your pipe and smoke it.
I am a Texas student and fully belive guns should not be allowed on college campus’s. Yes they could possibly save lives, but think about the other side. It could cause so many other problems, with the drinking and other mischevious accidents that happen on college campus’s. One small argument could turn into a deadly quarrel if students were allowed to carry concealed weapons. This is a major debate that needs to go under careful examination.
It is a statistical fact that the places with the most gun control laws have the strictest gun control laws have the worst gun crime, and the places that encourage responsible gun ownership have the least gun crime. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that if you create a law that disarms the citizens, it will only affect the law abiding citizens, leaving the criminals free to use guns on a disarmed citizenry.
Just look at Chicago and DC. They have some of the worst gun crime in the nation, and they have the strongest laws. This isn’t a coincidence.
Texas student: I understand your concerns, but realize that Texas, just like my state of Kansas, does NOT allow concealed carry if you’ve been drinking, even if you have a concealed carry permit. Texas may differ only slightly in requirements, but let me tell you what it takes to concealed carry in Kansas:
Not only that, acquiring the license cost just under $300 and breaking any concealed carry rules automatically bans me for life. The people that meet these requirements and jump through these hoops don’t take them lightly.
On the other hand, any criminal looking to shoot up innocent people (like what happened at Virginia Tech) isn’t going to bother with certification. And the only thing that can stop somebody like that would have been armed, law-abiding citizens inside the school.