For Texas gun owners licensed to carry concealed weapons, proposed state legislation may soon allow for firearms to be found in an unlikely place - college campuses.
The two bills, one in the House and the other in the Senate, are being promoted by supporters as a way to ensure that a massacre along the lines of Virginia Tech does not occur in Texas. According to the Gainesville Sun, the University of Texas has taken a strong stance against the bills by passing resolutions against them. Opponents of the bill, including one former Virginia Tech student who now attends UT as a graduate student, argue that legislation allowing for guns on campus will result in students using their weapons in unnecessary situations.
While 18 states have proposed and failed to pass similar bills, Texas is among seven other states currently exploring on-campus firearms legislation.
The Editorial Board strongly believes the passage of bills to allow for concealed weapons on college campuses is not the right approach to deter future shootings. If anything, legally allowing guns to have a place in college dorms and classrooms will only breed an environment that completely contradicts the intention behind the legislation. Instead of cutting down on campus shootings, who is to say that if passed, these bills won't lead to coeds pulling guns on their significant other over a minor disagreement or professors feeling unsafe in their own classrooms?
To consider the allowance for firearms on college campuses as the cure-all to ending school shootings is simply a gross miscalculation on the part of Texas state legislators.
