Texans debate allowing concealed guns on campus
Texas already lets lawmakers bring guns into the Capitol. And the governor sometimes jogs with a loaded pistol. But should people be allowed to carry concealed weapons onto college campuses?
Gun advocates argue that doing so could help put a quick end to threats like the one posed by a University of Texas student who fired several rounds from an assault rifle Tuesday before killing himself.
Under current law, college buildings in Texas are gun-free zones. But that did not stop Colton Tooley from darting along a street near the university’s clock tower Tuesday, shooting off an AK-47. He then entered a library and shot himself. No one else was hurt.
Police had no evidence Tooley was targeting anyone, but there was plenty of discussion Wednesday about how much worse the bloodshed could have been – and how to ensure that scenario never happens.
“There are already guns on campus. All too often they are illegal,” Republican Gov. Rick Perry said. “I want there to be legal guns on campus. I think it makes sense – and all of the data supports – that if law-abiding, well-trained, backgrounded individuals have a weapon, then there will be less crime.”
I agree with Rick Perry 100% on this issue. I’d like to see no place off limits to someone with a license to carry a concealed handgun.
Read the rest of the article at
http://www.observer-reporter.com/OR/StoryAP/09-30-2010-UTGunman
No subject illustrates the emotion over logic argument of the antis then Campus Carry.
I was a 22 year old Air Force Veteran of 4 years, trained on the M-16 and the .38 revolver. Trusted by the government to carry firearms around aircrews and support staff, but under the CHL scheme — I wouldn’t have been trusted to carry a firearm on campus.
Even now, military veterans with combat experience aren’t allowed to carry on campus with a CHL — tell me how that makes any sense.
I didn’t live on campus, I went to a community college.
I worked a full time job while carrying 6 plus hours in college.
I lived in my own apartment, paid all my own bills.
How in the world could I not be accounted as a responsible adult?