Anyone think this might not be a great idea ?
ME! It is one of the top reasons D16 did not apply to UT and will be attending a school OOS. I will be interested to see if suicide rates/attempts by gun increase on campus.
There have been petitions and protests since the bill passed this summer. It is based on the legislature’s desires- not the University’s. The University is supposed to issue rules on it but the law says the rules can’t forbid guns on campus completely. You do have to be 21 to have a permit, so there’s that…anyone who would break that law would break a weapon ban as well. I am not crazy about this but don’t feel as strongly as @labegg
The law only affects about 2% of the UT population. Only people who have a concealed carry license will be able to carry guns into campus buildings. You could already bring guns onto campus if they were concealed, you just couldn’t bring them into buildings. A lot of states actually let you bring concealed weapons onto campus.
We found this website helpful.
Coming from out of state, this policy really makes me rethink if I want to sent DS to UT-Austin. I would love to hear in-staters comment about it. Can they have guns in dorms (if you’re 21)?
I’m impressed with the initiative of some students who are planning to open carry … um… “anatomically-representative adult entertainment items” (is that vague enough for CC?) that, interestingly enough, are outlawed in some parts of Texas, around campus starting next fall.
Why one of those items is going to be legal and the other not - well, I do understand, but not as the legislature has determined which is which. From my S’s perspective, UT (or anything in Texas) was never on the table - he ruled out red states as a first step.
A lot of people respond to this as if their intuitions were reliable guides to the future.
Fortunately, we have evidence from states that have allowed guns on campus for a long time. Specifically, Utah, where I teach. Strictly speaking, guns have never been outlawed on campus here. More than 10 years ago, the legislature made them explicitly legal. So far as I know, not one regrettable incident has occurred. Not one.
I’m no fan of guns. I’m more liberal than conservative. But without evidence showing this could be a problem, let’s err on the side of individual prerogative.
I’d rather err on the side of safety. Admittedly, I’m more liberal than most and I’m definitely pro gun-control. However, imo stress, alcohol, and first serious love-interests (that are all common among college students) coupled with easy access to guns cannot be a good idea.
@d101parent here are the recommendations of the Campus Carry Working Group:
https://campuscarry.utexas.edu/CCWorkingGroup-FinalReport.pdf
On-Campus Residence Halls and University Apartments.
The Working Group recommends:
• The concealed carry of handguns should be generally
prohibited in on-campus residence halls.
• Exception: A resident’s parents should be permitted
to carry a concealed handgun on or about their person
while visiting a child in on-campus residence halls.
• Exception: The concealed carry of handguns should be
permitted in common areas of on-campus residence
halls such as lounges, dining areas, and study areas.
• The concealed carry of handguns should be allowed
in University Apartments (widely known as “married
student housing”).
• Residents of University Apartments who have
handguns must store them in gun safes that meet
specified standards and that are physically secured
in a manner that conforms to Division of Housing and
Food Service policy.
I agree with @d101parent. And, in all the data points, visits, scrutiny of schools it had never occurred to this New Yorker to consider – or ask – whether a campus welcomed concealed weapons. Talk about an “education” for this parent. Has also made me a better consumer as I look to other states’ laws in this college search process. I feel like campus carry policy should be disclosed – right upfront – on Admisisons websites, and in all printed literature. Sort of like product safety disclosures.
@higheredmom that’s a fair point; however, in defense of UT this law is new and as reflected in the hyperlink above from the Campus Carry Working Group, there is still a great deal of uncertainty about how it should be implemented. Going forward, I would expect that UT and all other Texas public colleges and universities will include more prominent information on their website on how this ridiculous law imposed on them by the state legislature will be applied on their respective campuses. I note that all of the top private Texas colleges which were given a choice as to whether to implement the law on their campuses have declined to do so. That list of Texas private schools who have stated no include not only Rice, but also relatively conservative schools like Baylor and SMU. I wish our legislature had given the public schools the same option, but no such option was provided to the public colleges and universities.
"The Working Group is aware of, and sympathetic to, the
overwhelming sentiment on campus that concealed carry
should not be permitted in classrooms. Every member of
the Working Group – including those who are gun owners
and license holders – thinks it would be best if guns were
not allowed in classrooms. Nevertheless, the Working
Group does not recommend that classrooms should be
designated a gun-exclusion zone.
The primary on-campus activity for most of our more than
50,000 students is going to class. Excluding handguns
from classrooms would have the effect of generally
prohibiting license holders from carrying their handguns
and so would violate S.B. 11. "
Unbelievable. Nobody wants this, but the NRA has spoken.
@d101parent, you’ve succinctly summed it up with the statement at the end of your post.
Texas is now one of 45 states that have open carry. Not sure why people think this will be a big deal when it is not in the other 44 states.
45 states have open carry laws but not on college campuses. 19 states ban guns from college campuses. 23 states allow the universities to make that choice. Only 8 states require that guns be allowed on campuses.
But even most of those 8 allow the schools to prohibit them in buildings. Oregon does that and Umpqua Community College prohibited them in buildings without written permission. That was where the deadliest shooting this year occurred. That is the paradox of gun laws. People willing to kill someone don’t follow them.
But as a parent, I am not excited about a bunch of guns in the classroom.
My S actually removed UT from his list bc of the gun culture. We are very familiar with UT and TX in general, but he just didn’t think he wanted to be around this. (Though living in NY, we probably are around more concealed weapons each day!)
Having lived in different cities in Texas, we are very familiar with guns and gun safety. Not all of Texas is urban. Gun knowledge and gun safety are trained from a young age by many. As a UT parent, I have no problem with licensed owners following the law.
My mother-in-law was a student in the middle of campus during the Texas Tower incident in 1966. She still has PTSD when thinking about guns, especially on any campus. I think it’s a terrible idea, but I’m in a blue state now.