Texas poised to pass bill allowing guns on campus

[Faygo Kid]

Texas is preparing to give college students and professors the right to carry guns on campus, adding momentum to a national campaign to open this part of society to firearms.

More than half the members of the Texas House have signed on as co-authors of a measure directing universities to allow concealed handguns. The Senate passed a similar bill in 2009 and is expected to do so again. Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who sometimes packs a pistol when he jogs, has said he's in favor of the idea.

Texas has become a prime battleground for the issue because of its gun culture and its size, with 38 public universities and more than 500,000 students. It would become the second state, following Utah, to pass such a broad-based law. Colorado gives colleges the option and several have allowed handguns.

Supporters of the legislation argue that gun violence on campuses, such as the mass shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007 and Northern Illinois in 2008, show that the best defense against a gunman is students who can shoot back.

"It's strictly a matter of self-defense," said state Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio. "I don't ever want to see repeated on a Texas college campus what happened at Virginia Tech, where some deranged, suicidal madman goes into a building and is able to pick off totally defenseless kids like sitting ducks.". . . http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2677023/posts

I have to do a lot of things in life. But one thing I won't ever do is live in Texas.

[Zoeisright]

1. I'll never live there either. Or vacation there.

Too many bad things have come out of Texas.

[TheCowsCameHome]

2. Everyone will be safer then.

So some people think...........

[mediator]

3. Good for them. The right to self-defense should have been the very first entry in the Bill of

Rights!

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

4. I like the order they're in now...

First we get to speak out about our freedoms and desires before we must have the ability to secure them ourselves.

[mediator]

5. Well, there's reason to believe the First is worthless without the 2nd.

I happen to believe that. :-)

[Doctor_J]

9. The first has been ripped to shreads over the last ten years

not a single gun nut has fired a shot in defense of the first.

Your slogan is NRA crap, with no basis in reality.

[Turbineguy]

6. A great idea.

Funeral parlors need the work.

[Botany]

7. 17 to 24 year old males w/ alcohol and guns

Boy I don't see any chance for problems there.

[Edith Ann]

8. Guns

When the police show up they'll shoot everyone with a gun. Instead of a few dead from a crazy person eveyone will be dead. The police won't know who the bad guy is.

[X_Digger]

12. Perhaps you can point me to a situation where that has happenned?

Generally? Or specifically in Utah or the Colorado campuses that already allow it?

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

10. the carry restriction ON campus will be the same as they've been OFF campus.

Only 21 or older.
Must pass background checks.
Fingerprints & photographs.
Permits ussued by police departments.
Guns must remain concealed.
No carrying in bars.
No carrying while intoxicated.

the same restrictions as OFF campus and all the fears your illustrating don't happen off campus.

I had a concealed carry permit when I was in college. No big deal.

[X_Digger]

11. Actually, it would be 21+ (no CHLs for 18-21 except for active duty .mil) n/t