Texas College Students Can Carry Concealed

On August 1st, 2016, the law allowing the carry of concealed firearms went into effect on college campuses throughout Texas. The previous version of campus carry in Texas allowed the carry of concealed firearms on campus grounds, but not inside of buildings. The new law permits carrying anywhere, on any public college, by anyone over 21 years old who possesses a concealed carry permit recognized by the state of Texas.The firearm is required to be kept holstered and concealed. The law came into effect, unintentionally, on the 50th anniversary of the shooting from the University of Texas-Austin clock tower, where Charles Whitman killed 14 and wounded 30 with a scoped rifle.

Three UT Austin professors sued last month to block the implementation of the law. They asked to be able to prohibit firearms in their classrooms for one semester, on the grounds that having guns in their classroom violates their first amendment right to free speech, and would “chill” classroom discussion.Assistant attorney general Anne Marie Mackin said that “their allegations of chill are not objectively reasonable, but instead all rooted in assumptions and prejudices…here all we have are unsubstantiated and inflammatory statements.”Students for Concealed Carry, an organization dedicated to allowing CCW permit holders to carry on campuses nationwide, argued against the “chilled classroom” premise, arguing that “licensed concealed carry has yet to turn a debate into shootout on any of the 150+ college campuses where it’s allowed or in any of the legislative chambers where it’s allowed.”Some students have planned to protest the new law by carrying dildos into classrooms. The student group “Cocks Not Glocks” plans to have students carry dildos strapped to their backpacks on August 24th, in order to “churn up the sense of shock and discomfort that people should feel about guns being everywhere.”Texas joins Idaho, Utah, Colorado and Tennessee in allowing full campus carry. None of these states has had a concealed carry permit holder snap and kill people in a classroom discussion, as of publication.