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Thursday, September 2, 2010

Campus carry

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Campus Carry is an effort by gun rights advocates to allow people with concealed handgun permits to carry firearms onto Texas college campuses.

Supporters of the measure, which died in the 2009 session when it didn't come up for a vote in time, say it could prevent tragedies like the massacres at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University. Right now, Texas universities are gun-free zones. They say students would still have to be 21 or older and go through the state's rigorous licensing and training programs to carry a gun on campus.

Opponents, including most campus student government associations, fear guns would make campuses less safe. They say gun-averse students would be afraid to go to class, and teaching assistants would be afraid to anger students with poor test scores. They worry suicidal or mentally ill students would use them to take their own lives, or someone else's.

As of 2009, 11 U.S. universities allowed concealed weapons on campus, nine of them public.