http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/10/texas-concealed-handguns-public-universities
We are one baby step closer towards open carry in Texas. Yeeehaaawww!
"
The holders of concealed handgun licences are set to be allowed to carry weapons into public college buildings and classrooms in Texas, after Republicans in the state senate approved the measure as part of a universities spending bill.
Republican senator Jeff Wentworth had been unable to gain the votes he needed to pass the issue as its own bill after it met stiff resistance from higher education officials, particularly from within the University of Texas UT-System.
The senate's 12 Democrats had mostly worked together to block the measure but were powerless to stop it on Monday when a majority in the 31-member chamber got it added to the spending bill as an amendment.
Supporters hope the vote will help push the measure past a roadblock in the house, where a similar bill has been stuck without a vote in that chamber with just a few weeks left in the legislative term.
"Campus carry has more momentum than a runaway freight train," said Scott Lewis of Students for Concealed Carry, a nationwide group backing the measure.
Supporters call it a self-defence and guns rights issue. UT-System chancellor, Francisco Cigarroa, wrote to politicians and Governor Rick Perry outlining concerns that the measure will lead to more campus crime and suicides.
Hearings were dominated by testimony from supporters who had been raped or assaulted on college campuses, and several people who had survived the 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech University when a gunman killed 32 people."
Unfortunately another legislature has found itself the ultimate arbiter of what people can and can not do on private or semi-private property. It is up to the Board of Trustees to determine what behaviors they allow on their campus.
I understand that a university like UT is really in no way a private institution but maybe if we let those that control the property set the rules for gun possession then we can let real private owners do the same as well.
I totally just watched the Stossel episode on gun control a few hours ago. However, I noticed you left out this little gem:
"Earlier on Monday, senators voted to allow themselves to carry concealed handguns into places the rest of the public cannot, such as churches, restaurants and sporting events."
Parden my French, but that is fucked up.
"Francisco Cigarroa, wrote to politicians and Governer Rick Perry outlining his concerns that the measure will lead to more campus crime and suicides"
Anyone who thinks that concealed carry could lead to more crime/suicide is a bit dim - If I am suicidal I am going to kill myself, with it without a gun, open or concealed carry. If I am carrying a handgun, not for self defence, but for agression, then I am unlikely to pay that much attention to the states position on concealed carry.
And it's not even about who can carry the guns. These people already have guns. It's just about whether they can legally have them on campus.
Who controls the property of UT, bogart? Is it the millions of taxpayers who are forced to pay tribute for its existence? Or the unelected, unaccountable Board of Trustees who are appointed by the Governor and pay him back with huge campaign donations? How about the input of students and their parents (UT's consumers)? Why does a government-created oligarchy trump all of these people in regards to private property rights?