Texas Community Colleges Leery of Guns on Campus
Ed Leathers has a concealed handgun license, and he believes in Texas gun laws. But as the chief of police for Collin College in the northern suburbs of Dallas, he is convinced that campuses are the wrong place for concealed handguns.
“Our officers are trained to go immediately to the location of where shots are reported to be fired, and they’re trained not to ask any questions but stop the person who they identify with a weapon” — and that could include a student or teacher who is trying to take down a shooter, Leathers says. If officers were to ...
Comments (17)
Donald Dickson
When that young man killed himself in the Castaneda Library at UT, the police believed initially that there were two gunmen, and no one could enter or leave the building for several hours. Can you imagine the bloodbath that might have ensued if there were a dozen, or twenty, or fifty kids carrying guns in that library? (Yes, kids. Remember, we're talking about gun-toting STUDENTS.)
The fact that someone has obtained a concealed handgun license is no assurance that they are not, or cannot become, a deranged lunatic. Why DPS lets these people and their guns into the Capitol is beyond me....7-Eleven won't even allow them into their convenience stores.
If you want to keep a handgun under your pillow, I'm fine with that. If you want to keep one in the glove box in your car, I'm fine with that. But if you don't feel safe in your math class without a pistol on your hip or your ankle, I think you need professional help for your anxiety.
Sheri Alexander via Texas Tribune on Facebook
hmmm....armed young person...community college...wow if TUSCON didnt come into your mind, than youve been under a rock. as both com col n UT student, i will fight with all my voter power to defeat bills like this one. students+ away from home, drugs, alcohol, stress, pressure, money issues-yea throw a gun into the mix too thats smart. fucking idiots.
Nick Zalud via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I'm more worried about the shooter in the hallway than the concealed carrier next to me.
Michael Alvard via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I'm worried about students with guns in my classroom. I agree with Sheri.... it is a recipe for disaster.
Clint Pohler via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Excellent points, Sheri and Mike! That's the exact reason that the Tucson shooter did the shooting at Safeway instead of at Pima Community College...because a law prohibited carrying a concealed weapon on campus. Hey, a few schools have already slipped through our fingers, do you think you guys could help me out? I'm trying to find school shootings at any public university in Utah since they allowed concealed carry a few years ago. Or maybe Colorado St? I think there's a community college in Virginia that has allowed it for 15yrs now. SURELY there must have been a student that flipped out and shot people with his concealed handgun based on the clearly logical reasons Sheri listed.
Thanks in advance!
Mac Mcclure via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I am sure if there was a shooting at a school that allowed concealed carry we would hear about it over, and over,and over, and over. I would like to see anyone with a concealed carry permit allowed to carry their gun anywhere. Better yet would be to change the law to open carry.
Donald Dickson via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Clint, my understanding is that Mr. Loughner specifically targeted Rep. Giffords. Since she was at Safeway and not at Pima Community College, that is why she was shot at Safeway, and not at Pima Community College. It had nothing to do with any law that the State of Arizona has enacted. If Rep. Giffords had been at Pima Community College that morning, there can be little doubt that that is where she would have been shot, notwithstanding any law that the State of Arizona has enacted.
Aldo Merino via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Guns have no place on education campuses. The notion that armed students will stop a rampant shooter is wishful thinking based upon action hero fantasies -- it depends entirely on the notion that an armed student will happen to be in the right place at the time and fully prepared for a statistically rare incident. Reality tends to indicate precisely the opposite: People in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It also wholly ignores the countless side effect dangers of allowing guns on campuses; we'll lose far more students to accidents an spontaneous, unforeseen flare ups long before any armed student just happens to stop some mythical gun shooter. If you want to reduce school shootings, putting in place a series of security measures, taking preventative measures for student mental health issues and the like, and staunching the flow of weapons in this country (e.g., reinstating the assault weapons ban and closing the gun show loophole for starters), would be a good start.
State Sen. Wentworth has been advocating this dangerous policy for years now and it's one that has no place in Texas or anywhere else. Let kids focus on education and let administration and security personnel focus on keeping kids safe through preventative measures and best practices.
James McClure via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Donald, when you use facts and logic it only confuses liberals. The UT campus was and still is a gun free zone, but that didn't stop the crazy guy from breaking that law. Gun free zones and most other gun control measures do nothing but prevent law abiding citizens from protecting themselves and have been rejected outright by most clear thinking Americans.
Aldo Merino via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Oh, James, the troll has rolled in.
There are no gun violence panaceas, but there are reasonable measures we can put in place to reduce it. Wanting to provide a safe learning environment and community is not just a liberal cause, but it certainly indicates how out of touch you are with the kinds of things most people across the political spectrum want.
Sheri Alexander via Texas Tribune on Facebook
James apparently knows every liberal and knows all "clear thinking" Americans. Get those comments off a bumper sticker? Turn off fox news stop generalizing and making insults before you try to make an intelligent counter argument. You lost your credibility.having anti gun laws doesn't mean they are good or even work. Alot don't work well e. Any person for gun control knows that. I don't wanna reject I want reform. Find me one instance of a law abiding private citizen saving peoples lives from a shooter with their own legal hand gun and preventing injury/murder. Just one.
Judy Raddue via Texas Tribune on Facebook
What did the cop say? The more people carrying guns, the more likely an innocent will get shot. Ask Joe Zamudio, who came within seconds of killing the wrong person in Tucson: http://www.slate.com/id/2280794/
Paul Theobald
Some questions to consider: If there were multiple weapons around, how easy would it be to confuse who is doing the shooting, and who is doing the shooting back? Are we going to start providing training exercises for students on how to defend a classroom or identify and take down an alleged gunman/men? Isn't that what campus security is for? Doesn't it make more sense for a cohesive society to focus more on maintaining mental health among students than allowing concealed weapons? Is this helpful to our debt crisis to force colleges to greatly expand their security forces and training curriculum (as they will necessarily do to respond to the increased concerns with multiple concealed weapons) when they are already facing massive funding cuts? This issue does nothing positive for our state's financial crisis, so why?
Derek Smith via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Texans have a wild west hero fantasy. So i say their should be handguns on campus and let the police shoot all the students who pull them out because they want to get the shooter. Thats a few less annoying people i have to talk to. Maybe if all the students who want to carry handguns get shot my classes wont fill up so quikly.
Carl Lamson
The commentary is semi-amusing, yet borderline absurd. People are not grasping some basic truths about those of us who CHOOSE to carry weapons. First, we have to make that choice - we have to ask ourselve, "Is this something I'm truly willing to live with? Am I truly willing to take the life of another human being if necessary?" Then, if we answer that question affirmatively, we have to seek out training. There are several companies across the country who offer these courses, but they are not inexpensive. Costs vary from $75 for a four hour familiarization course to $3,000.00 for a 4 day combative handgun course (plus food, lodging, and ammunitin). Oh, and have we examined the cost of the weapon itself? This is a tool I'm going to bet my life, and, quite probably, someone else's life on at some point. So, a functional, reliable weapon, plus needed accessories (holster, extra magazines, magazine carrier, ammunition, range time) generally start at $650 for a everything on day one, and can climb as high as $2500.
We make a commitment, when we choose to carry, to not be victims, and to not allow others to be vicitms if we can help it. I am 35, currently enrolled in a community college, studying to be a teacher. Were I not disabled, I would most likely be in law enforcement. However, given the situation I'm in, I can still do my part to protect the general public with my actions.
One last thing. If my weapon is CONCEALED, then how is the person next to me in class going to know I'm armed? That's part of the reason of concealing it, is to prevent people who are uncomfortable with weapons from seeing it, and automatically assuming the worst, as the media and TV shows have taught them - that I intend to do them harm. I don't intend to do anyone harm, until they give me sufficient reason under law to do so. Unlike criminals, who would carry regardless, I follow the laws set in this country, even when I don't agree with them.
Brett Curtis
“Our officers are trained to go immediately to the location of where shots are reported to be fired, and they’re trained not to ask any questions but stop the person who they identify with a weapon”
Immediately? No, the police are never going to intervene in a shooting event immediately. If it were your student who was about to be fired on by a crazed shooter, how long would want an armed CHL holder in the classroom to wait for the police to arrive? Let's be real. The police can only intervene after a protracted shooting event against defenseless unarmed students. Many students will most certainly be dead before the police can be notified and arrive so called "immediately."
"He is convinced that campuses are the wrong place for concealed handguns" Sure, and where does he support 21-24 year old college students being allowed to legally carry a concealed handgun and defend themselves when necessary? Let's be honest. The college campus is no different than any other public place.
"Teri Fowlé, a spokeswoman for San Jacinto College in Houston, agrees and says San Jacinto College leaders would not be in favor of letting concealed handguns on campus. “If you have students who are constantly wary of who is carrying a gun and who is not, how does that facilitate education?” she asks."
This isn't about what the person sitting next to you thinks. This is about exercising our most fundamental individual right to self defense.
Mike Dunn
For the most part, guns are a bad idea. Guns ensure neither our safety nor our liberty.
Let me go a step further, guns reduce safety dramatically and the need for law enforcement to become militarized functions to nullify liberty.
The "gun" needed to ensure a free and open society is Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Association.
For the most part, Egypt was a gunless revolution... and a more legitimate revolution as a result.
Wake up America!