the most troubling, irresponsible one of all is a bill to allow concealed weapons on college campuses. Authored by Rep. Joe Driver, R-Garland, it seems to have enough support to pass the House. In the Senate, 13 of the 31 members have promised their support for an identical bill authored by Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio.
It’s a horrifying thought. It is our fervent hope that cooler heads in the Senate will prevail and block its passage. Students have enough on their plates without having to worry that horsing around, drinking or otherwise acting like a college student could result in an unintended tragedy.
There are excellent reasons why all major car rental agencies require that a driver be at least 25, or pay a hefty premium if younger. Psychologists are well aware that the ability to foresee the consequences of one’s behavior is still developing long past adolescence.
The arguments that having a concealed weapon would help prevent tragedies such as Columbine and Virginia Tech are discounted by experts, who cite statistics that being in possession of a handgun can be a dangerous proposition in itself, on or off campus. Texas colleges seem to agree: Campus police departments and more than 40 colleges have voiced their opposition, noted the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Within the last month, 57 people have died in eight mass shootings around the country. Just a week ago yesterday, a gunman shot and killed 13 people in Binghamton, N.Y., before killing himself. The next day, three Pittsburgh police officers were killed, hours after a man killed his five children and then himself in Washington State. Eight died the week before that in a nursing home in North Carolina; four police officers in Oakland. … Most of the killers were registered gun owners.
We live in a violent country. And firearms are the weapons of choice. They have no place on a college campus.
Most of the lawmakers who are supporting this outrageous legislation are doing so simply because they don't want to risk losing their 100 percent rating with the NRA. The fact that they would allow an extremist organization like the NRA to dictate to public universities that they have to allow guns on campus (private schools would be conveniently exempt), despite the opposition of the very people charged with protecting the students on these campuses, shows just how completely irresponsible and morally bankrupt they have become.
These moronic cowboy fantasies that gun nuts have that they will whip out their concealed handguns and stop some campus shooter are as likely to happen as they are to repel an invasion of space aliens. More likely to happen is that they will screw around with their gun at some point and get themselves or someone else shot.
Some letter writers to the Chronicle had a great suggestion for these jerk lawmakers. Since they are going to force handguns onto our college campuses, the bill should also contain a clause opening up handguns to the state Capitol and their legislative offices.
Such idiots!
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