Aggie Senator to Propose Concealed Handguns on College Campuses

They're small, hidden, pack a powerful punch, and permit holders can carry them most places in Texas. However, when it comes to handguns, a college campus isn't one of those places.

"That's in my opinion, a big problem," said Matthew Rogers. Rogers started Texas A&M's chapter of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus.

"All we're asking is that you allow us to make that choice. If I can legally carry somewhere else, allow me to make the decision whether or not I want to carry here on campus," said Rogers.

At least one person in the Texas Legislature agrees. State Senator Jeff Wentworth of San Antonio, an Aggie himself, has promised to propose a bill that would allow those with a permit to pack heat on campus.

"I don't believe that we should be putting firearms in the midst of students who are going through trauma and stress and situations that can push students to the limits," said Texas A&M senior, Darrin Barton.

Supporters say the bill wouldn't change current requirements, like age; license holders would still be at least 21 years old.

"I don't see that there's going to be a big behavior change from when I can carry at home and when I can carry here," said Rogers.

Although some students said they supported gun rights, they said they would feel uncomfortable with guns in a college classroom.

"When was the last time you ran into a student that said they were uncomfortable off campus because of all the people around them carrying concealed handguns?" said Rogers. "The fact is they don't know. It's concealed, that's the point."

"It's not about whether you can see it at the time they have it concealed, its about when they use it," said Barton. "At any point when is that going to become an option for someone to use?"

It's a debate that will continue in Austin, in January, when Texas' 81st Legislature convenes.

Officials at Texas A&M declined to comment, saying administrators will wait until the bill is filed before taking a position.

Real simple answer to the “guns are bad, CCW holders should be banned from our premises” idiots: Pass a law that says that any institution, business, organization or operation that bans concealed carry is thereby assuming responsibility for the safety of each and every person on their premises, and unless they specifically provide one security guard per person, they assume total financial liability for any incident which may occur on their premises. This should specifically include universities and schools.

Then stand back and watch the fun as either these organizations open up to CCW to keep their insurance costs down, or have to price themselves out of the market because of their skyrocketing insurance or security personnel costs.

Those who deprive us of our rights should have to pay for their behavior.

BRAVO!

I attend college at a community college in Texas. The campus cops are naught but a joke: there are only a few on duty at any time, they spend most of their time issuing citations when they are here, their response time in in the 10+ minute range, and they won't even walk women through a poorly-lit parking lot at night.

Haven't gotten my permit yet (still saving for it), but when I do, I would certainly carry on campus if this law went through.

I can tell you now that a .357 would make me feel considerably safer than the mace I currently care (and according to campus rules, could get into serious trouble for carrying).

Any progress is good progress but I see a problem with all these type proposals in that they are always limited to CCW license holders. Getting a license obviously requires you to submit your name to be put on a list which can be abused at their discretion. Therefore, the whole concept of CCW and NICS needs to have some more thought applied to it. In the case of NICS I think I came up with a reasonable solution: rather than send the name of the buyer to the government for an up or down decision, let the government send the list of prohibited names to the FFL’s. Then you show your ID to the gun shop guy, he checks the list, and if you’re not on it, you get your gun, WITHOUT THEM KNOWING A THING ABOUT IT, and them knowing was never one of the objectives...right? Now of course the list of prohibitees is always changing, so additions and deletions from the list could be distributed on a subscription basis say monthly or something. Now the list should be a document, not software provided by the BATFAGs. If they provide the software, how could it possibly be proven that there wasn’t something freedom infringing or privacy infringing in it? But if it’s like a CSV file or something that can be read with Excel or Notepad, then we don’t need to trust them because there’s no possibility for digital chicanery. Then the PC’s on which the querys are done should have no Internet connection to preclude the possibility that somehow the information firewall is being bypassed and our servants are getting access to information they don’t need to do their jobs. I also think it should be done like they do with prisoners who have to work on PC’s in prison; the HD should be reimaged from a stored image on a daily basis, and any area of the hard drive not overwritten in this process be scrubbed. Thus we know and the shop owners know there is no possibility of any private information being saved without the merchant or customer’s knowledge. Hopefully something like that could be done for CCW’s as well.

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