The law allows students at each public university to have concealed weapons even in classrooms if aged 21 or above.
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As of Aug.1, a new state law now gives college students with concealed carry licenses permission to walk onto most Texas college campuses with their firearms.
Texas campus carry law supporters largely believe students and staff will be safer now that they can defend themselves against a crazed gunman, terrorists, rapists, or general criminals.
In an early afternoon ceremony, Gregory Fenves, the university’s president, dedicated a granite monument containing the names of 17 people killed by Charles Whitman, a 25-year-old student and former Marine, who opened fire from the school’s clocktower on August 1, 1966. The state’s open carry law doesn’t apply to college campuses.
“What campus carry does is that it only authorizes those who go through the special training and background” to carry guns, he said, according to Reuters.
Three professors at the University of Texas sued July 6 to overturn the law, claiming it is unconstitutional and is forcing colleges to impose “dangerously-experimental gun policies”.
Generally speaking, the Texas law allows guns in buildings, classrooms and dorms, but rules may differ from campus to campus, as each school is required to map that out.
For the past 20 years, Texas law allowed people to carry concealed weapons on campus but not in buildings.
Officials at the University of Texas oppose the law. So they don’t know for sure how many guns will be on campus.
The Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus said Monday that the law, known as Senate Bill 11, ignored pleas from those anxious that more guns will not curb violence on campus.
Private schools and community colleges are also off-limits for the time being.
State representative Lloyd Doggett mentioned two shootings that occured in Austin over the weekend and said; ‘Let us resolve to never become callous to the loss we experienced here or those other losses. On the fateful day in 1966, students and other campus residents assisted law enforcement, firing on Whitman with their own rifles and other firearms.
Courtney Dang, a third-year student at the University of Texas at Austin described the idea of campus carry as “scary”. “I empathize with the many faculty members, staffers, students and parents of students who signed petitions, sent emails and letters, and organized to ban guns from campus and especially classrooms”.
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“As there are no metal detectors or other safety measures in place to enter campus, I don’t see why a bad person with a gun can’t come onto campus with or without campus carry laws in place”, he said.
