Guns On Campus, Guns At Work Get Big Thumbs Down In Texas

Jun 2, 2009

Austin, Texas – The Texas State Legislature said “no” to the gun lobby in the session just ended, joining a growing list of states that rejected forcing colleges and universities to allow students to bring loaded, hidden handguns to class and also rejected a second gun lobby priority bill to force businesses to allow employees to have loaded guns in their cars on private property. 

Texas joins 10 other states that have already rejected guns on campus legislation this year. 

“Common sense is alive and well in Texas,” said Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Campaign.  “State legislators in Texas agreed that places of learning don’t need armed college students, and that private property owners should set the rules on who can come onto their property packing.”  

Defeating these bills was the top priority of the Texas Brady Campaign chapters.

“We are very pleased that the gun lobby's two priorities for this session failed.  Our lawmakers respected the strong opposition from the university community and also chose to protect business owners’ private property rights,” said Marsha McCartney, President of the Texas Chapters of the Brady Campaign. 

“Students don't want guns on campus, but the National Rifle Association tried to push it” said John Woods, a student at the University of Texas who led student opposition to the guns on campus bill.  “In the process, the gun lobby showed its true colors and produced a new generation of activists inclined to doubt the NRA's claims that more guns means greater safety. The NRA could have spent its political capital pushing for improved background checks, but instead it got in a shoot-out with university communities all over Texas.”

The guns on campus bill, SB 1164, would have required state colleges and universities to allow students with concealed carry permits to bring guns into the classroom. University of Texas students held a rally in Austin to oppose the bill, and Virginia Tech University graduate Colin Goddard, who was shot four times during the siege there on April 16, 2007, wrote a moving column in the Dallas Morning News urging state legislators to reject the bill. 

The guns at work bill, SB 730, would have permitted gun owners to have guns in cars in company parking lots even if the business prohibits it.

###

As the nation's largest, non-partisan, grassroots organization leading the fight to prevent gun violence, the Brady Campaign, with its dedicated network of Million Mom March Chapters, works to enact and enforce sensible gun laws, regulations and public policies. The Brady Campaign is devoted to creating an America free from gun violence, where all Americans are safe at home, at school, at work, and in our communities

Dennis Henigan is Acting President, Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the author of Lethal Logic: Exploding the Myths that Paralyze American Gun Policy (Potomac Books 2009).

A photo and more information about Dennis Henigan is available here.
For continuing insight and comments on the gun issue, read The Brady Blog