Texas Tech Tragedy

Legal campus carry is not to blame for officer’s death

Campus police at Texas Tech University in Lubbock made a student-welfare visit Monday evening at one of the dorms.

In the student’s room they found evidence of drugs and drug paraphernalia. Officers took the student down to the police station for questioning and transfer to the county jail. Then something terrible happened. According to Texas Tech police, the student pulled a gun. He shot and killed Officer Floyd East Jr. and then fled. The student’s name is Hollis Daniels. And it wasn’t long until he was in custody and charged with capital murder. He has reportedly confessed.

We extend our sympathies to the officer’s loved ones and the Texas Tech community. As for the suspect, the law will take its course. Unfortunately, it won’t be left there. Because these days it’s a rare tragedy that doesn’t become political fodder.

Texas is one of 10 states that allows students to carry concealed weapons on campus. And already some are suggesting this played a role in the shooting. That cry is likely to grow stronger since about 500 Texas Tech faculty and staff signed a petition in opposition to guns on campus.

Let’s be clear. Legal guns at Texas Tech had nothing to do with this.

It isn’t known at this time whether Daniels had the gun on him when taken to the station or whether he took an officer’s gun. But that has nothing to do with campus carry.

Daniels is 19 years old. Texas law doesn’t allow anyone under 21 to have a concealed carry license. We should add that federal law prohibits guns where drugs are used or present.

So if the suspect did have a gun, he had one illegally. No law stopped him. No law allowed it.

That’s the thing. People who commit illegal acts don’t worry about the law. Only law-abiding citizens follow the rules.

But the idea that campus carry in any way contributed to Officer East’s death simply doesn’t hold water.