Headine: Bills Favoring (Concealed) Guns on Campus Advance in 2 States

From Today's Inside Higher Ed:
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Bills Favoring Guns on Campus Advance in 2 States

Legislation to permit those registered to carry concealed weapons to carry them on college campuses is advancing in Missouri and Texas. In Texas, the House Public Safety Committee has now approved a measure that appears to have the support of a majority in the House of Representatives, The Houston Chronicle reported. In Missouri, the House of Representatives voted Thursday to lift a ban on carrying concealed weapons on campuses, KOMU News reported. In both states, legislators favoring concealed weapons on campus say that students would be safer if they could respond to a threat. But in both states, some legislators and most campus safety experts say that guns pose unique dangers on campuses, where students are not necessarily mature and may be tempted to use firearms while drunk. In the words of Missouri Rep. Chris Kelly: "College boys love things that go boom. What we don't need is beer and college boys and firearms."

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/04/10/qt#196182
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*Aggie Librarian does the Happy Dance*

Hot damn, that's a news item I'm glad to see. Earlier in the week I got a broadcast email from a library colleague who noted the faculty senate was discussing this legislation and what our university's response would be; She asked for all staff who supported the measure to email her. I did so. May have been alone in doing so, and I hope not, but I stated that I fully support this legislation.

Of course, the Hoplophobia is running high in the comments section of Inside Higher Ed; One even mixes it with conspiracy theory, saying it's a clandestine assault in the ongoing war against public education in Texas. While I would agree with the poster that higher education funding IS under assault, as are science standards in the public schools (both situations I deplore), legalizing CHLs to be able to exercise their constitutional right on campus as well as off is a GOOD thing. These measures have failed in other states, but according to the Houston Chronicle article, this bill has a good chance of passing in the Texas Legislature, and I for one am thrilled. Why should Utah's state universities enjoy more constitutional liberties than we do in Texas? Last I checked the headlines, the blood was not flowing in the streets around the Harrold ISD school district in Texas either (Harrold ISD made the decision to allow teachers with CHLs to carry concealed while on duty if they want to).

Of course, the tired old Canard about 'drunken frat boys with gunz' is getting tossed around again. Texas has had concealed carry on the books since 1994, and has seen a reduction in the crime rate. Expanding concealed carry to state colleges and universities is highly unlikely to coincide with a wave of violent crimes on campus, any more than the original passage of Concealed Carry back in 1994.

It's already a crime for a CHL to consume alcohol while carrying, and it's illegal for a CHL to enter a premises that derives 51% or more of its sales from alcohol purchases, legally defined as a "Bar". Campus carry won't change those provisions.
Reckless gun use is still a crime and would continue to be a crime. It is a crime to fail to properly conceal in Texas. A Texas CHL must currently be 21 years or older to possess a handgun or even buy handgun ammo. Career criminals frequently carry guns that it is already illegal for them to possess--they don't give a damn about piss-ant "weapons" charges; these are thugs who are intent on much worse. Prohibitionist laws impact only the law-abiding like me. If someone tries to launch a murderous rampage in my library, the only thing I can currently do is try to escape the building as fast as I can, hide in the stacks, or under my desk, or (literally) throw a book at said hypothetical gunman. OED vs. Gun...not the best odds of survival. Gun vs. Gun...raises my chances to about 50%-50%, give or take, depending on the tactical situation. And if I survive that encounter by stopping the threat, then I save not only my own life but potentially dozens more.

This law, if passed, would also mean that many of our non-traditional age commuter students could legally carry a pistol in their purses or on their persons and have a better chance of surviving a violent attack or preventing rape altogether. My university is traditionally majority women, and was for most of its history a single sex school for women only. I can only hope with time that the injustice of disarming citizens 18-20 years old will only become more glaringly obvious if the Campus Protection Act passes the Texas Legislature. But in any case, for the graduate student coming to campus for night classes after work and staying in the library until closing time doing research, not to mention library staff (who are also mainly female) that have to close up around midnight to go home, our campus will be that much safer after this law is passed.

The main thing I would benefit from is convenience in my after-hours routines, if I'm wanting to drop by campus to either get a little work done or use the ATM in the student union. Since normally outside of work I carry virtually everywhere permitted by law always, if I do need to swing by campus I have to make a point of going home first to disarm and then heading back disarmed to campus so that I can legally enter campus buildings without breaking the law. Current law is stupid, but I still obey it because I'm a law-abiding citizen. The existing law inconveniences only me, not the career criminal, who ignores it and actually favors restrictions on good citizens like me, because it makes me a more compliant/easy victim for them to attack.

I am sort of agnostic with respect to the Open Carry debate. In principle, I have no opposition to OC. In practice, I think it would still freak out way too may people. Even if OC were legal in Texas, I would still prefer concealment as my personal choice, and most definitely in a work setting. In a legalized OC world, I might OC if I were, say, out riding a bike (where effective concealment could be a real pain in the *ss--literally), or maybe stepping outside to take out the trash (nowadays I just slip a .22 LR "mousegun" in the pocket of my cargo shorts, which i otherwise store in its case near my bathtub).

I think we will get to OC eventually, but it could take a few more years or even a decade. I would also be ok with getting there via baby-steps, starting with licensed OC first. OC with a "Texas militia badge" embossed with Sam Houston's face, our state's most famous militia leader, to be worn on the gun belt in plain view with a shape distinctive enough to NOT be mistaken for a LEO but to be clearly identified as "good guy", Joe Citizen. Only to be worn when OC-ing, too.
Some people think there should be badges for CHLs who do carry concealed but I strongly oppose THAT. It defeats the point of--carrying concealed, e.g. the element of surprise that keeps criminals less sure who can fight back, which in turn keeps us all safer.

Anyway, I'm delighted that Missouri already passed their law, and I hope Texas is able to follow suit very soon. Once it's law, I think it would be political suicide for an Texas Democrat to push to repeal it. People don't like to give up new freedom once they gain it and get to enjoy and exercise those freedoms.

Any campus shooting is a tragedy, and also a "Black Swan" event. But as the old saying goes in the gun rights community, better to have your gun and not need it than to need it and not have one. Just because a wreck is statistically unlikely doesn't mean you should not wear your seatbelt.

It also occurred to me walking to my car today that the prohibitionist logic runs something like this: Because rape is a horrible crime, and because all men are at least potential rapists via 'date rape', and because pedophiles walk among us, then ALL SEX SHOULD BE BANNED. FOR THE CHILDREN'S SAKE, naturally. Clamp down on sex offenders by making everyone a sex offender, in other words (*facepalm*).

The exact same "logic" (i.e. illogic) is operating when it comes to campus gun bans or gun banning in general (like in those islands off the coast of Europe formerly known as Great Britain--and sadly the Republic of Ireland, who darn well should know better, as should my ancestral Scotland, who got to experience firearms confiscations in 1715 and 1745). Such laws don't deter criminals and only harass and harm the law-abiding.

Other states are actually ahead of Texas (Utah, Alaska, Vermont) but we're finally starting to live up to our Lone Star Image in the popular imagination...in good and bad ways. But this way is a good way, even if my fellow Lefties disagree with me on this one.

Kudos to my State senator, who co-sponsored the senate version of this legislation, and to my state rep, who at least voiced lukewarm support and whom I will hold accountable next election if she fails to vote for this.