Reports from the first public forum on how to implement mandated campus carry at the University of Texas were that most speakers were against it.
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Ellen Spiro, radio-television-film professor and member of anti-campus carry group Gun-Free UT, said she is surprised by the lack of participation from gun supporters.
The new law does not apply to private universities or areas of public universities where guns are already banned, like certain health facilities, and community colleges won’t have to comply until August 2017.
Bryan Jones of Austin, Texas, wrote that allowing guns on campus is a “direct threat to free speech”.
Neuberger and other professors have organized demonstrations across UT campuses to protest the legislation and have created a group called Gun-Free UT, which plans to hold a rally October. 1. They say guns will allow people to defend themselves on campus, and maybe even stop the next school shooting. Though open carry uses existing concealed carry law as its basis, lawmakers made it so licensed Texas still won’t be able to openly carry handguns in state university buildings.
Public university presidents can declare parts of campus, but not all of it, off-limits to gun.
“I don’t want those guns in my classroom”, he said.
Madison Yandell, a student and president of College Republicans of Texas, said campus carry is an important self-defense measure. Still, there is plenty of uncertainty for private institutions going through the opt-out process.
Senate Bill 11, or the campus carry bill is being met with a few opposition.
“We expect that everyone at our universities – including the professors who signed the petition – to follow the law”, John Wittman, deputy press secretary for Abbott, told TheBlaze Wednesday.
“Firearms and weapons don’t belong on this campus”, Diaz said. Right now, 150 UT Austin professors have signed a petition saying they will refuse to allow guns in their classrooms. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, calling his legislation a stand for personal protection and “God-given” rights. UT-Austin has predicted that less than 1 percent of its students will be eligible to carry on campus. A female student said she would feel safer walking to and from campus with a gun, especially because there have been recent assaults near campus.
“If you can’t trust students at UT”, said Andrew Jackson, a sophomore, “you can’t trust the students who are going to change the world”.
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At a public forum held Wednesday night, the vast majority of the more than 30 people who spoke railed against the new law and urged officials to restrict its implementation.
