The law still won’t allow students and professors to carry a rifle like the ones used that day. There’s that…
I have also lived in Texas for 40 years both in rural and urban settings. I agree that many kids have grown up around guns, know how to use them properly and are respectful of them. I do not believe they will be strapping them to their waist when they turn 21. They might carry them discretely. Also, generally these are the kids that go to A&M, not UT Austin. Maybe that is why there is not the concern on the A&M campus that there is in Austin.
Also, my main concern is not the mass shootings but suicides and incidents involving alcohol and guns. There is also the great potential of gun toting bullying. There was an incident recently at a very popular restaurant across the street from UT Austin. An older male began yelling at 2 young Muslim women both in the parking lot and in the restaurant. They ended up leaving and wrote a letter to the editor about how intimidated they were and nobody helped. Patrons that were there wrote back saying they had not understood the situation but some that did said they did not intervene because they were fearful this man was carrying a concealed gun. What happens when the man has it strapped to his waist.