And private schools and two-year community colleges are excluded until next year, when the law takes effect at those schools.
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Supporters of the legislation argue that “good guys” with guns are the best way to counteract the danger of a possible campus shooting.
With the new law, Texas joins other states with similar campus gun laws, including Kansas, Colorado and Utah.
Texas’ controversial campus carry law will go into effect Monday, the 50th anniversary of a shooting on campus at the University of Texas in Austin.
A campus-carry committee formed by the student body and staff was also created to suggest recommendations to ASU President Brian May. Most of the signs are near labs where students work with flammable chemicals.
That’s for public schools, but for private universities they could opt out of the law.
However, places like the University of Texas, Texas A&M University and the University of Houston will be allowing guns.
“Considering the unique nature of the Amberton student and campus environment, Amberton University has chosen to comply with [SB 11] by allowing individuals with valid handgun licenses to exercise their rights as provided by [the state] to carry their concealed handguns onto Amberton campuses and premises”, Warner said.
The Texas campus carry law will permit college students who are at least 21 years old to carry a firearm at all public universities and colleges if they possess a concealed carry license, NBC reports.
People who have a license and wish to carry a handgun on campus must carry it at all times, or the weapon must be in a secured in a backpack or handbag always near the carrier, or the weapon must be secured in a locked, privately owned or leased vehicle, the University of Texas said. Although colleges and universities do have the authority to regulate the concealed carry of firearms on their campuses, that power is severely limited.
A college campus that will be filled with students in just 3 weeks, some of them probably armed.
Earlier this month three professors filed a lawsuit against the attorney general, Fenves and the UT Board of Regents. They are asking a federal judge to issue a temporary order to halt the law prior to the beginning of the fall semester, which begins on August 24.
“We didn’t deal with it at the time”, Sharon Reuler said, who was a student on campus that day and came from Dallas for the ceremony. In 1966, a student at the University of Texas at Austin shot 14 people from a clock tower. “Those same legislators failed to listen to assault survivors who testified that a weapon would have made the situation much worse”. The others are Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Oregon, Utah and Wisconsin.
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The dean of the University Texas School of Architecture left his position because he disagreed with the presence of guns on campus, FOX reported.
