GUN CONTROL TO COLLAPSE IN TEXAS COLLEGES ?

GUN CONTROL COLLAPSING
IN THE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES OF TEXAS

By The Associated Press
February 20, 2011

AUSTIN, Texas —
Texas is preparing to recognise the rights of college students
and professors 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 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."

Similar firearms measures have been proposed in about a dozen other
states, but all face strong opposition, especially from college leaders.
In Oklahoma, all 25 public college and university presidents declared
their opposition to a concealed carry proposal.

"There is no scenario where allowing concealed weapons on college
campuses will do anything other than create a more dangerous
environment for students, faculty, staff and visitors," Oklahoma
Chancellor of Higher Education Glen Johnson said in January.

University of Texas President William Powers has opposed concealed
handguns on campus, saying the mix of students, guns and campus
parties is too volatile. Guns occupy a special place in Texas culture.
Politicians often tout owning a gun as essential to being Texan.
Concealed handgun license holders are allowed to skip the metal detectors
that scan Capitol visitors for guns, knives and other contraband.

Guns on campus bills have been rejected in 23 states since 2007,
but gun control activists acknowledge it will be difficult to stop the
Texas bill from passing this year. "Things do look bleak," said
Colin Goddard, assistant director of federal legislation for the Brady
Campaign Against Gun Violence, who was in Austin recently to lobby
against the Texas bills. Goddard was a student at Virginia Tech when he was shot four times in his French class. Student Seung-Hui Cho
killed 32 people, including 10 in Goddard's classroom, before shooting himself.

Goddard dismisses the idea that another student with a gun could
have stopped the killer. "People tell me that if they would have
been there, they would have shot that guy. That offends me," Goddard said.
"People want to be the hero, I understand that. They play video games
and they think they understand the reality. It's nothing like that"
but Derek Titus, a senior at Texas A&M who has a state license
to carry a concealed handgun,
said someone with a gun that day could have improved the chances of survival.

"Gun-free zones are shooting galleries for the mass murderers," Titus said.
"We do not feel that we must rely on the police or security forces
to defend our lives." Businesses, schools and churches can set rules
banning guns on their premises. On college campuses, guns are
prohibited in buildings, dorms and certain grounds around them.
Opponents of campus gun rights say students and faculty would live
in fear of their classmates and colleagues, not knowing who might
pull a gun over a poor grade, a broken romance or a drunken
fraternity argument.

Frankie Shulkin, a first-year law student at the University of Texas,
said he doesn't think he'd feel safer if other students in his classes had guns.
"If I was taking an exam and knew the person next to me had one,
I don't know how comfortable I would feel," Shulkin said. "I am in
favor of guns rights and your typical conservative guy, but the
classroom thing bugs me."

Sen. Wentworth said he heard the "blood on the streets" warnings
when Texas first passed the concealed handgun law. "They said we'd
have shootouts at every intersection," he said.
"None of that has happened."

[All emfasis has been added by David.]