Texas’ New Campus Carry Law & the Legacy of Guns on Texas Campuses
By Lauren Morgan
I’m about to graduate with my Master’s in Social Work. As someone proud of receiving my degree from a prestigious Texas university, I am all the same glad I will not have to step foot on campus for many years. A major risk for gun violence is being introduced to Texas college campuses on a date that should serve as a stark reminder of the dangers of guns on campus.
On June 1, 2015, the Texas Legislature passed SB 11. The bill permits individuals with a concealed handgun license (CHL) to carry a weapon on public university campuses in Texas beginning August 1, 2016. Although university presidents and officials are able to set some rules in regards to how weapons are carried and stored on campus, regrettably, university officials do not have the right to generally prohibit people to carry a concealed handgun. Ironically, Texas’ new campus carry law goes into effect on the same day as the 50th anniversary of the University of Texas sniper attack. On August 1, 1966, a single sniper atop the UT Tower killed 14 people and injured 32 others. The shooting lasted about 90 minutes.
I can’t separate the tragic event of 50 years ago from the reality our campuses will be facing in the fall. Knowing that hundreds of mass shootings take place in our country each year, I find myself already programmed to expect the worst. When I wake up each morning I instinctively look at my phone, checking to make sure that there hasn’t been another horrific shooting. I know I am not alone in this, and I feel for the students who will start the school year having to temper this fear within a very real new scenario of potentially being surrounded by guns in their classrooms.
The possibility of a gun-toting fellow student being prepared to try to take down a shooter offers me no consolation and only increases my apprehension. Guns on campuses bring a whole new threat of accidental misfiring and, as we have seen on other campuses, minor confrontations escalating into shootings. Research also shows defensive gun use in a crime is very low and tends to be unsuccessful — with the intervener more likely to be ineffectual or inadvertently hurt himself or others. It also concerns me that civilian interveners might actually delay the rescue efforts of trained law enforcement if there is a crime on campus. As we saw last month when a lone gunman shot down Dallas police officers, it’s challenging for law enforcement to determine who the good guys are and who the bad guys are when both are armed.
Opposition that began during debates over the law has continued, and this month three UT professors have sued the university and state over the new law. While it’s too early to predict the full impact Texas’ new campus carry law will have on students, employees, and Texans in general, it seems we should at least stop and reflect on our past as a state. That past, reflected so terribly in that shooting of 50 years ago, tells us that college campuses are no place for guns, and I for one hope that this law will be repealed before we have another tragedy to add to our history.
Lauren Morgan is a volunteer for Texas Gun Sense, and a student at Texas State University. She will graduate with a Master’s in Social Work this year.
