August 1 marks the day which the state’s new Campus Carry law was enacted. This law which comply with Senate Bill 11, has authorized a licensed holder to carry concealed handgun at University of Texas at Austin and other public universities in Texas. The implementation of this law have risen controversy between the stakeholders which are the faculty members, students, parents, staffers and alumni. In regard to this, President Fenves has assigned a Campus Carry Working Group to guide the implementation of Senate Bill 11 which complies the law and at the same time ensuring the safety of the campus. The library portal is the first website which I went through to get my sources. The databases I used were LexisNexis and Abscohost. The reasons …show more content…
He first points out three opponents’ evidences. First, McCann agrees with UT president Greg Fenves, who wrote a letter to Chancellor William McRaven, saying that Fenves believed presence of handguns at an institution of higher learning contradicts the mission of education and research, which is based on enquiry, free speech and debate. However, the author understands that Fenves is obligated to uphold the law. Second, the UT community has already taken affect by the law even before it was implemented. This is evident when Dr. Fritz Steiner, UT's longtime architecture dean, left for a job in regard to campus carry. He added that it will be difficult for Texas to keep pace with the market faculty when professors might think twice before accepting the offer to teach here. Thirdly, Economics professor emeritus Daniel Hamermesh is calling it quits, too. He wrote to Fenves, that he perceived there is a risk of a displeased might have brought a gun into his class and shoot him is significantly intensified by the campus-carry …show more content…
He views a few evidences to prove that. First, UT estimates that less than 1% of students have Concealed Handgun License (CHL). This is because only person whose age is 21 and above is eligible to get a CHL. Second, reports by 17 research universities in campus carry states prove that there is not much of direct effects on student life or academic affairs by campus carry. Third, 18,536 homicides in Texas between 2001 and 2013, only five occurred on or near college campuses is noted by New York University professor Jonathan Zimmerman. According to Zimmerman, “Guns do cause mayhem in America — just not on Texas campuses, where both sides have imagined a problem that simply does not
Dear Mortimer I am writing this paper to persuade you to rethink your position concerning the preemption of firearms regulation regarding college campuses. All over the world violence occurs when we least expect it. As the human race evolves, so does the technology we use. We have acquired the ability to kill a man without being in his general vicinity. With just the slight movement of my finger I can end someone’s life. One small confrontation could lead to a terrible travesty. In the United States alone, we have seen many shootings in educational buildings from the students themselves. When you put guns in the hands of students, you are asking for death. People may say it adds protection to people wearing guns, but what about the people without them? I strongly believe that if this bill is allowed to continue we be seeing a large number of shooting in buildings of education, which is unacceptable. One small miscommunication between two armed students could start a firefight.
In addition to youth and gun crimes, much debate has sparked over whether or not college officials should allow students to carry concealed weapons with them on campus. Renee Montagne has interviewed many people, college students included, in her article, “Texas Lawmakers Aim for Guns on College Campuses” About their opinions of guns on campus. Many disagree, stating that it is a terrible idea, and will lead to gun-related accidents, or mass killings, like the one that took place at Virginia Tech (Texas Lawmakers). Some people, such as Stephen Wright, point out the fact that by simply carrying a legally weapon does not cause mass killings or
A major issue in the United States is gun control. Due to multiple mass shootings in schools and public areas, restrictions regarding guns have been implemented across the United States. Andrew Parks, a student at The University of Alabama, wrote an article against gun restrictions. His article, “The University should allow concealed carry,” supports the idea of college campuses like The University of Alabama, allowing students to conceal carry firearms. In an article written by Jennie Kushner, the opinions of students on the University of Alabama’s Police Department’s gun policy are presented. The safety of student body relies on the students’ feeling safe. That safety comes from less gun control laws and policies on campus. Each of the articles stated provides information against gun control in different ways.
Concealed carry and college campuses are two major topics currently in the media, yet these two topics are rarely used in unison, until now. The topic of whether or not concealed carry should be allowed on college campuses is a now mainstream debate with multiple views and numerous differentiating opinions. Many of the general public question if campus police is capable enough to protect a university’s enormous student body? Another commonly discussed issue is if concealed handguns actually do deter crime, and if they are capable of aiding in stopping a mass shooting spree? Or if guns on campus, carried by fellow classmates would make students as a whole feel more cautious or on the opposing hand make students feel more secure with guns carried on campus? If guns are allowed on campus, how will this affect a growing student’s ideology? These questions and many more are highly spoken of in our social media based generation, the answers to these questions help to improve our knowledge on this debate of concealed carry on college campuses, which will lead us to form our own individual opinions on this debate topic based on the facts and evidence presented.
“Gun control? We need bullet control! I think every bullet should cost $5,000. Because if a bullet cost $5,000, we wouldn’t have any innocent bystanders.” (Rock, 1999) Chris Rock got a big laugh when he expressed his comical stance on the issues with guns. With the heart-wrenching reality of the Virginia Tech massacre, the issue of whether or not guns should be allowed on college campus has returned to the forefront of debates, and this is no longer a
With backpacks in tow and pencils in hand, college students crisscross campus with stress of acing the test, hardly thinking about their safety. This was the case on a clear Tuesday at the University of Texas on September 28th, 2010. Students fled from a mask gunman carrying an AK-47 and shooting randomly around campus. Nineteen-year-old Colton Tooley, wearing a black mask, eventually killed himself in the library. Remarkably, no one else was injured or killed. (MSNBC) This was not the case in 1966 when 16 people where killed with 32 injured by a gunman in the UT clock tower. The debate still wages on to allow concealed guns to be carried on college campus in Texas despite a recent bill that failed to pass. The US Constitutional Second
The difference on perspectives has been a major issue especially after President Obama’s constant effort to pass more gun control laws. In contrast, the presumably and deeply Republican state of Texas, which has very few restrictions on guns, has just passed a law that makes concealed carrying on college campuses legal. Such law has been a controversy and had divided reactions from Texans all around the state. The problem that is tried to solve with this bill is to prevent more mass shootings from happening in the facilities of higher education institutions. It is very important to
HB 910, better known as the Open-Carry Bill is a bill that was passed on May 29, 2015 and signed into law by Governor Jim Abbott after it cleared both chambers of the Legislature. The Open-Carry Bill allows licensed holders to carry concealed handguns on public college campuses. Abbott claims that the bill will not only strengthen Texans second amendment rights, it will secure them (The Associated Press, 2015). However, the bill has raised questions regarding the safety of students and faculty on college campuses. As a team, we initiated our research by questioning the results of how the bill will affect college campuses across Texas. The objective of our research is to gather qualitative and quantitative data that defines
Is campus carry truly effective in decreasing gun violence on campus? Or does it, instead, pose a threat to students and faculty? The campus carry law refers to the policies that allow appropriately licensed students and faculty to carry a handgun on campus as long as the gun is hidden from sight. Several states, including Texas, have passed concealed carry; as a result, polarizing debates have ensued over the effectiveness of the law. Shootings have been occurring at institutions of higher education since the early 20th century (Cobb 35). The first incident of campus shooting occurred at the University of Texas in 1966, by a student named Charles Whitman. Since then, there has been several other university shootings, and they have become more frequent within the last two decades. As a result of this, as well as other shooting incidents such as, Sandy Hook Elementary School, Oregon Mall, and Aurora movie theater, in recent years, the debate over allowing concealed carry on campus has gained a lot of momentum with very conflicting opinions. Proponents of concealed carry consider it to be the best answer to decrease the injuries and casualties of a gun related incident, while opponents consider allowing firearms on campus a threat to the safety of campus constituents. Agreeing with opponents of campus carry, I believe by allowing the concealed carry of firearms on campus, we are potentially compromising the safety of students and faculty, thus universities should push for
This issue of campus carry has been around for a long while, because some people believe that guns ensure safety and others believe they bring danger. While on one side, there are pro-gun activists who want to see the college community safe from crime, on the other side stand the peace activists who want to prevent violence on campus caused by guns. The controversy has been brought into the light of the media recently with UT Austin’s legalization of concealed handguns on campus.
On August 1, 2016, senate bill 11 (S.B. 11) was put into effect, which allows for the carrying of concealed handguns on Texas public institution campuses by license to carry a handgun (LTC) holders (Campus Carry UTSA). There has been lots of controversy over this new law, especially since there were 23 shootings on college campuses in 2015 alone. In this essay, I plan to explain the stipulations of this new law and why it is controversial.
The signing ceremony for the bills is scheduled for Saturday, June 13th. Gov. Abbott’s decision
Students walk college campuses thinking of homework, friends, social happenings, but rarely thinking about their safety. Students on college campuses are defenseless against an armed assailant because an armed assailant can shoot and harm many students in a short time before the police arrive. There are opposing views about allowing concealed weapons on college campuses, and the debate has been making news lately with the number of school shootings and people getting killed and injured rising. According to Robert Birnbaum in The Magazine of Higher Learning, “More Guns advocates argue that college students and faculty should be able to carry weapons for their own protection, particularly since history has shown that colleges can’t protect them from assailants” (Birnbaum 7). For students to properly defend themselves against armed assailants, they should be allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus.
As of this present day, concealed handguns are now allowed to be carried anywhere on all Texas public universities. This shocking dispensation, from earlier prohibiting regulations, is now enforced by the new law in the state of Texas. This law is known as S.B. 11 or Senate Bill 11. For those of you who don’t know how a bill becomes a law, it’s a long, crazy process. The fact that this bill made it through every step of it is an insane thought that questions, how?
“Colleges and universities occupy a special place in American society. They are much more than a series of buildings and collection of individuals. Instead, they are dynamic living and learning environments where individuals with varying levels of maturity interact, often under stressful circumstances. While recognizing the right of responsible individuals to possess firearms under other circumstances, the unique characteristics of a university campus make the presence of firearms problematic. The shootings that have occurred in recent years at US colleges and universities have generated passionate debate about how best to prevent such violence and whether persons should be allowed to carry concealed guns on campuses. Experts believe there is no credible evidence that students or staff carrying guns would reduce crime. In fact, research has shown that the brains of most college students have not fully developed regarding impulse control and judgment” (Dickerson). Therefore, guns should not be allowed on college campuses because it would lead to an escalation in violent crime, distract from the learning environment, and lead to accidental discharge incidents.