Content about Concealed carry in the United States
I recently opened my email to discover that UT has been declared a tobacco-free campus. While this finger-waving policy will and should generate some controversy, I was most struck by the following statement enclosed in the message: “The institution is enthusiastic about taking another step toward creating the healthiest environment possible for those who work, study and visit here.” Why then does the leadership of this University refuse to allow students to fully exercise their right to self-defense?
After a series of tumultuous events and heated debates, UT students can rest assured that measures to allow students to carry guns on campus will not be permitted. Last week, Sam Cummings, a conservative federal judge in Lubbock, Texas, dismissed the National Rifle Association’s challenge to a Texas law prohibiting teenagers and adults ages 18 to 20 from carrying concealed weapons in the case Jennings v. McCraw.
Most UT students will remain ineligible to obtain a concealed handgun license after a district court ruling last week.
United States district judge Samuel Cummings threw out a motion to overturn a Texas law that prohibits 18- to 20-year-olds from obtaining a concealed carry license on Thursday.
Fewer women than men in the U.S. hold concealed handgun licenses and women who do carry them do so for self-defense and a need to feel empowered, according to a study by sociology graduate student Angela Stroud.
Stroud said her study, which involved 15 interviews with women who hold concealed handgun licenses, found that women seek the license to feel as powerful as men in a culture where women are taught to feel vulnerable.
AUSTIN, Texas — Republicans in the Texas Senate on Monday approved allowing concealed handgun license holders to carry weapons into public college buildings and classrooms, moving forward on a measure that had stalled until supporters tacked it on to a universities spending bill.
Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, had been unable to muster the votes he needed under Senate rules to pass the issue as its own bill after the measure met stiff resistance from higher education officials, notably from within the University of Texas system.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Senators have voted to allow concealed handgun license holders to carry their weapons into public college classrooms.
Monday's vote is a major push on an issue that had stalled in the Senate and House despite overwhelming numbers of lawmakers in support in the Republican-dominated Legislature.
Concealed carry on campus may have hit another dead end after Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, pulled down her higher education bill Tuesday.
Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, had attempted to add his controversial guns on campus legislation as an amendment to Zaffirini’s bill, which would have reduced reporting requirements for universities and in turn lowered tuition rates.
A rash response
Most UT students remember where they were when they heard about the most devastating terrorist attacks in American history.
Within months after the World Trade Center fell on Sept. 11, 2001, the United States was at war. For most students, the United States has been at war longer than it has been at peace in their lifetimes.
But on Sunday night, President Barack Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden, leader of the terrorist group al-Qaida.
Texas senators are expected to debate two controversial pieces of legislation this week — the budget and concealed carry on campus.
The state House and Senate are looking for methods of easing the $15 billion to $27 billion budget deficit for the 2012-13 biennium. The House passed its version of the budget bill last month, which included major cuts to education and health care. Last week, the Senate Committee on Finance passed its version, which restores some of that funding.
The proposed concealed carry bills state that concealed handgun license holders will be able to carry their guns onto campus.
On Wednesday night, the TIP program hosted a panel in the Union Theatre about the possible legislation that will force public colleges and universities in Texas to allow licensed individuals to bring their concealed handguns on campuses.
As the Texas House and Senate consider legislation that would legalize concealed carry of handguns on campus by licensed individuals, four members of the UT community met Wednesday to debate the issue in the Texas Union Theatre.
Senators anticipated voting on the concealed carry on campus bill Monday, but it stalled on the floor for the second time in a week.
The controversial bill would allow concealed handgun license holders to carry guns on college campuses.
Supporters have said the bill would allow personal protection, while opponents are concerned it could lead to campus violence.
Texas Senators were debating the concealed-carry bill Thursday when Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, temporarily pulled the bill down until Monday.
The bill would allow concealed-handgun license holders to carry guns on Texas college campuses. The decision came after senators asked Wentworth for additional time to look over new amendments and propose the bill to constituents.
“This is a matter of personal protection,” Wentworth said. “The idea that it will result in increased violence is unfounded.”
Jim Bryce held back tears as he recounted memories of 45 years ago, when he was supposed to meet a friend for lunch at the Texas Union, but saw a shooter inside the UT Tower on the news.
Bryce and classmate Sandra Wilson were students at UT in 1966, when Charles Whitman, a student and former Marine, opened fire atop the Tower, killing 14 people and wounding 31.
Both testified before the Senate Criminal Justice Committee about the concealed carry on campus bill Tuesday along with current students, including members of student lobbying group Invest in Texas.
The state Senate Committee on Criminal Justice on Tuesday heard testimony from supporters and opponents of SB 354, a bill which would allow concealed handgun license holders to carry concealed handguns inside buildings of Texas public universities, including UT.
While students were off during spring break, Texas lawmakers tackled legislation including concealed carry on campus and the Rainy Day Fund.
The Rainy Day Fund is an emergency pot of excess revenue totaling $9.4 billion that lawmakers can use to balance the budget. State legislators, including House Appropriations Committee chair Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, said the state should tap into the fund, but Gov. Rick Perry did not want to use any of the excess revenue.
As state legislators take up the issue of concealed carry on campus this session, 66 people are one step closer to receiving their concealed handgun licenses.
Michael Cargill, UT Students for Concealed Carry on Campus and a Department of Public Safety certified instructor, hosted a concealed handgun licensing course for the second consecutive year, said the group’s vice president Kory Zipperer.
UT System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa sent a letter to Gov. Rick Perry encouraging him to prevent the Texas Legislature from allowing guns on college campuses.
The letter, which Cigarroa sent Thursday, addressed the System’s three main areas of concern about the bill that would allow registered concealed carry permit holders to bring guns onto college campuses. He said in the letter the bill could be detrimental to University mental health, law enforcement and laboratory safety.
Two survivors of the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting want Texas lawmakers to vote against bills that would allow students to carry concealed handguns on campus, they said at a press conference Thursday.
Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, and Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, filed a bill that could allow licensed individuals to carry concealed handguns on college campuses. Rep. David Simpson, R-Longview, filed a similar bill in the House.
Former state Rep. Suzanna Gratia Hupp said to about 50 students Tuesday that she was not mad at the man who shot her parents and 22 others during the 1991 Luby’s massacre in Killeen.
“I was mad as hell at my legislators,” Hupp said.
The Faculty Council unanimously passed its second resolution in two years affirming the current ban on concealed firearm carry on campus at a Monday meeting.
Higher education campuses in Texas have been designated gun-free zones for 15 years, but lawmakers will try again to change that this legislative session.
Since the start of the 82nd Texas Legislature last month, Rep. Joe Driver, R-Garland, Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, and Rep. David Simpson, R-Longview, have each filed bills to allow carrying licensed concealed handguns on campus.
UT Division of Housing and Food Services follows institutional rules that ban all weapons and facsimiles on all areas of campus, subject to a third-degree felony.
University Democrats and College Republicans may butt heads on most issues this legislative session, but both will lobby to fight higher education funding cuts.
“Obviously, we disagree with the College Republicans on several issues, but I think what we really want to try to do is focus on issues we can all agree on,” said University Democrats spokesman Cameron Miculka. “The thing we’re going to be most involved with is watching how the Legislature tackles the budget. One of the first things that is going to be on the chopping block is higher education.”
In its last meeting of the semester, the Student Government assembly passed a resolution in support of in-state tuition for undocumented Texas residents — reflecting agreement with an existing law that allows undocumented immigrant students, and those in the U.S. under other types of visas who attend Texas high schools, to gain in-state tuition at Texas public universities.
