AUSTIN, TEXAS — Texas will allow holders of concealed-handgun licenses to carry their weapons into buildings, classrooms and dorms at public universities starting Monday, which is the 50th anniversary of the mass shooting at the University of Texas’ landmark clock tower.
The campus-carry law pushed by Gov. Greg Abbott and the Republican legislative majority will make Texas one of a handful of states that guarantee the right to carry concealed handguns on campus.
Anyone who has a Texas license for a concealed handgun will be eligible. To get that license, a person must be at least 21 years old (18 if in the military) and pass classroom and gun range training courses. There are restrictions on convicted felons, people charged with felonies and high-
level misdemeanors, and people with a history of mental illness.
Texas has more than 1 million holders of concealed-handgun licenses.
Generally speaking, the law allows guns in buildings, classrooms and dorms. But rules may differ from campus to campus, because each school is required to map that out.
For example, at the University of Texas’ flagship campus in Austin, where faculty members and students vigorously protested the law, teachers will be allowed to declare their offices as gun-free zones, but most will post signs announcing it. Dorm residents can have guns in common areas, such as dining areas and lounges but not sleeping rooms, where no storage of weapons is allowed. Exceptions to the room restrictions will be made for visiting family members who are licensed to carry handguns.
At Texas A&M University in College Station, guns are allowed in dorm rooms, and teachers must get permission from the administration to ban guns from their office.
State law still bans weapons from some campus areas, such as hospitals and sports events.
The state’s open-carry law specifically does not apply to college campuses. Any handguns on campus must be holstered and out of sight.
Private universities such as Baylor, Rice, Texas Christian and others can ban guns under the state law.
Amberton University, which doesn’t allow students under 21 and has a total enrollment of less than 2,000, is the only private school that has opted to allow guns.
As for community colleges, they have until August 2017 to allow weapons, giving them more time to adjust for security and other measures.
Texas has allowed concealed handguns in public for 20 years. Gun-rights advocates consider it an important protection, given the constitutional right to bear arms, as well as a key self-defense measure in cases of campus violence, such as the 1966 shootings at the University of Texas and the 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech.
Opponents of the law fear it will chill free speech on campus and lead to more campus suicide. The former dean of the University of Texas School of Architecture left for a position at the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League member, because of his opposition to allowing guns on campus.
The start date is unsettling for some because it falls on the anniversary of Charles Whitman’s shooting rampage in Austin, where the Marine-trained sniper opened fire from an observation deck on top of the school’s landmark clock tower. It has come to be accepted as the nation’s first mass shooting, with 17 deaths attributed to him.
Among those who urged state lawmakers not to approve campus carry was Claire Wilson James, the first person Whitman shot. She was pregnant and was shot through the belly, killing her unborn child.
