Just a few days before the tragic school shooting Umqua Community College in Oregon, 150 professors at the University of Texas signed a petition to ban students from carrying handguns on campus, regardless of whether they have a legal permit to do so.
The petition has been signed by 150 professors at UT and is part of the larger anti-carry movement, “Gun-Free UT.” Both are in response to SB11, legislation passed earlier this year in Texas which allows gun owners with concealed handgun licenses to carry on public university campuses.
According to UT student newspaper The Daily Texan, history professor Joan Neuberger is one of the faculty members spearheading the anti-carry movement. Neuberger along with “Gun-Free UT” created a Change.org petition for the public which has over two thousand signatures.
The Change.org petition calls for the removal of guns so as to create a “safe place” free of “fear.”
“WE OPPOSE GUNS IN OUR CLASSROOMS AS A DIRECT ASSAULT ON OUR FREE SPEECH RIGHTS,” the petition page reads.
Campus Reform pointed out one particular signee who seemed to imply that beyond just banning the ability to carry, something far more extreme should be done to the students with guns:
“If you’re a student with a gun sitting next to me, you intend to possibly kill me. Why shouldn’t I kill you before you kill me[?]” remarked a signee under the name of Sheila Zare on the online petition page.
What Sheila Zare failed to add to her insightful comment was how she planned to “kill” [or just defend herself] from the student sitting next to her with a gun.
At UCC, Sheila Zare wouldn’t actually be able to defend herself (or “kill” her attacker) because carrying her concealed firearm would be against the code of conduct, and furthermore, campus security wouldn’t be able to defend her with their firearms because UCC dismissed the idea of armed guards earlier this year.
Though Oregon was one of seven states that allowed people with conceal carry licenses to carry on public campuses, the Oregon State Board of Higher Education banned guns from “classrooms, buildings, dormitories, and sporting and entertainment events.”
Though a requirement of “written permission” to carry a gun (along with a legal license to carry) most likely would not deter a deranged individual from carrying out a mass murder, one person legally carrying a gun could significantly halt said deranged individual from a tragedy like the one in Oregon.
The University of Texas at Austin is less than two hours from Texas A&M, another public university of Texas, where in August 2016 students will be able to conceal carry on campus.
Peterson went on to say that she is looking forward to having open carry on her campus and “thinks students will feel a lot more at ease.”
The timing of UT’s petition and the tragedy in Oregon hasn’t been overlooked and has once again brought the campus gun debate center stage. While it is not a new debate, it is still a pertinent one and solid reform and solution seems still far away.
