This mom is terrified about the effects of upcoming campus carry. Any one else having similar thought?
I wouldn’t worry about it. The law only covers people over the age of 21 who own a concealed carry license. I think the school estimated that that was less than 1% of the university population. If you already live in Texas then you’ve likely already been in multiple places where people were concealed carrying and you didn’t even notice.
People really won’t be able to tell the difference, as open carry is still illegal and you won’t have to see people walking around with fully visible rifles. The interesting part is, concealed carry is already legal on campus, this law just extended the right to carry to the inside of university buildings. I also don’t think that a school shooter would go through the trouble of getting a license for concealed carry, but that’s just my opinion.
Thanks Danfer91. I appreciate your taking the time to try and calm me down. I’m not from Texas : we’re from a blue state and I admit I’ve never been around guns. So the experiencesof other people are helpful. What really scares me are accidental and negligent discharges. The Internet is not calming me about that AT ALL. Believe it or not I’m not concerned about school shooters as I think that is exceedingly rare.
According to the packet we received about this, there have been a total of 4 accidental discharges at campuses where concealed campus carry has been implemented. UT is trying to do some things to make this even less likely, like requiring that the gun be in a holster that doesn’t allow the weapon to slip or move. I won’t say that it’s impossible, but I find the likelihood of an accidental discharge by someone who has a concealed carry license to be less likely than a school shooter. Living in Texas, unless your child wants to remain in their dorm at all times, they will be around guns. I certainly don’t see guns every day, or even every month, but I know that they’re around me pretty much every day because of the sheer amount of people in Texas that have them. It actually doesn’t make me feel unsafe, just the opposite actually.
Thank you. the campus carry information sheet doesn’t say anything about a holster though I agree they need to use it.
I’m also not sure I agree the likelihood is less than school shooter possibility. You say there have been 4 discharges on a very small sample size in schools with campus carry. Among the same number of schools there haven’t been that many school shootings. anything the school can do to help lessen the risk I would welcome though.
You’re correct to say that the sample size is quite small, as I believe it’s 8 states that allow it now, however I wonder how many college shootings there have been in these states since they instituted campus carry. I know of the one in Oregon last year but I don’t remember any others.
You also have to consider that in those 4 accidental discharges, no one was hurt. In the extremely unlikely case of an accidental discharge, one bullet will be discharged and then nothing more. That may not be comforting, but in the case of a school shooter you have someone actively hunting down students and faculty. Just to give you an example, as I was first against this policy. I took a poli sci class last semester with over 100 students in it. About 1-2% of the students at UT are veterans and I just so happened to be sitting next to two marines in this class; one was in their late 20’s, the other was about 30, married, with 2 kids. Many of the students who have licenses to carry are probably the same ones who are ex-military. Now personally, I’d be rather upset if there were an active shooter on campus that came into this class and I was seriously wounded when there are two people sitting 5 feet from me , who probably have concealed carry licenses, and who have more training than 90+% of cops but they’ve been disarmed because of a law that really doesn’t make much sense. Now last semester they wouldn’t have been able to have weapons, but if it were next semester they would, and really no one in the class would have been able to tell that these guys had concealed handguns. I personally don’t own a gun, and probably never will since they make me nervous, but I really have no problem with guys like this having concealed weapons in class when they have that much training. I mean, would people object if there were a police officer in every classroom at UT?
An informative site with additional links:
https://campuscarry.utexas.edu/update-campus-carry-rules-and-implementation
Not so informative. Maybe the links are, but that blurb from Bob Harkins leaves out some very important requirements., such as:
A license holder who carries a handgun on campus must carry it in a holster that completely covers the trigger and entire trigger guard area. The holster must have sufficient tension or grip on the handgun to retain it in the holster even when subjected to unexpected jostling.