Law allowing guns in buildings at colleges will invite trouble

Texas Senate Bill 11 will provide zero benefits, undermine the UT community’s right to self-govern, and will create (and already has created) a climate of fear.

Most among the University of Texas at Austin student population do not qualify to obtain a concealed handgun license; the minimum

age in Texas is 21. But that doesn’t mean the likelihood is low of concealedhandgun license holders being on campus. UT-Austin also hosts nearly 12,000 graduate students, thousands of faculty and staff, and visitors who could potentially carry a gun in campus buildings — about 850,000 Texans are permit-holders. Because of reciprocity agreements with 39 states, CHL holders from other states (like Alabama, where 18-year-olds can get a license) could carry in UT buildings as well. Supporters of the law, which is set to take effect next August, argue that allowing concealed weapons on campus will make us safer. They restate the NRA’s most overused line, about how only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun. But when it comes to campus carry, “bad guys” with guns, while newsworthy, are actually almost nonexistent on college campuses in Texas. According to the Los Angeles Times, of the 18,536 homicides in Texas between 2001 and 2013, only five occurred on or near college campuses.

Even in the extremely unlikely scenario of a shooting, CHL holders almost never save the day. For example, during the recent shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, which allows concealed carry, multiple UCC students on campus that day did actually have concealed handguns on them at the time of the shooting, yet did not prevent, intervene or stop the tragedy.

Furthermore, in dangerous situations, it’s difficult for responding officers to determine which civilian with a gun is the “good guy” and which is the “bad guy.” As Pete Blair, executive director of Texas State University’s ALERRT (Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response) Center, has said, “If there’s an active shooter event and you’re a person with a gun, you look like the active shooter. You need to know that if police see you with a gun, there’s a high probability that you will be shot.”

Allowing guns on campus also won’t be without cost to taxpayers, either. State Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that SB11 “will cost

our schools and universities, ultimately our students and taxpayers, tens of millions of dollars,” because additional officers, training, storage facilities and security technology would be needed once the bill takes effect.

However, for those who can afford the tuition, private universities can decide for themselves whether or not to allow guns on campus. SMU and TCU, for example, have rejected the idea.

But public universities like UT-Austin, which receives state funding for only about 13 percent of its budget, are required by politicians to accept the presence of deadly weapons in campus buildings, like offices and classrooms and even dorms. Why should politicians from across the state get to uniformly decide the gun policies of specific public universities, where they have little direct involvement?

UT’s campus community is overwhelmingly opposed to the bill — from the student body, to the grad students, to the professors and their departments, to University of Texas System Chancellor William McRaven. Austin police chief Art Acevedo has argued that more guns will likely cause confusion and firearmsrelated calls, which, even if false alarms, can cause fear among the public while wasting valuable police time.

Campus carry endangers UT’s learning environment, limiting dialogue within the classroom but also discouraging top scholars from working with the university. Daniel Hamermesh, an economics professor emeritus, decided to withdraw from UT to teach at the University of Sydney, doing so, he wrote, “out of self-protection.”

The classroom should be a safe place, where controversial and even disturbing ideas can be discussed openly and honestly. Students and professors should be “Armed with Reason,” to use Gun Free UT’s slogan — not armed with guns.