Lindsey shared the university statement on the matter, which says in part that Houston “takes issues surrounding campus safety and guns on campus very seriously and will strive to create policies that comply with the new campus carry law, protect the rights of citizens and address the safety and security of the entire campus”.
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With the state of Texas soon to require public universities to allow concealed guns on campus, the University of Houston held a forum to counsel faculty members on how to deal with the calamity of a student legally exercising their Second Amendment right.
Shawn Lindsey, a university spokesperson, emphasized that the PowerPoint was not university policy and that an official working group is expected to release its recommendations for how campus carry will look at Houston next week. “Under the law, I can not adopt a policy that has the general effect of excluding licensed concealed handguns from campus”, Fenves wrote in an email to the UT community. Jeff, a doctoral student at UH, recently tweeted a photo from a slideshow that was presented to faculty.
Unlike public universities, private colleges have the option to opt out of campus carry, which nearly all have done.
“I do not believe handguns belong on a university campus, so this decision has been the greatest challenge of my presidency to date”, he said, according to the Austin Statesman.
Private universities are permitted to ban guns if they choose. “However, as president, I have an obligation to uphold the law”. In Texas, a person must be 21 years old in most cases to get a gun license, and while licensed students will be allowed to bring their handguns to class, they won’t be able to do so openly.
KSAT reported in December 2015 that there have been 13 incidents in which at least four people were killed in a gun attack in Texas since 1966.
According to the recommendations made by the Campus Carry Task Force, the university will not provide gun storage on either the San Marcos or Round Rock campuses.
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The Associated Press reports that among the institutions that will continue to prohibit guns on campus are large private universities that have religious affiliations and often align with the type of conservative values espoused by the politicians behind the law. The Baptist school announced this month that guns would not be allowed on campus. In fact, from a crooked angle, the concealed-carry law actually resembles an act of state coercion.
