Class of 2017
Thank heavens, the Texas Lege has finally done something about the defenseless students on Texas college campuses! A law allowing concealed handgun carry on campuses went into effect today to allow students and faculty to defend themselves from Comanchero raids, Pancho Villa's insurgents and bushwhackers of all sorts.
The law goes into effect on the 50th anniversary of University of Texas student Charles Whitman's sniper attack on the Austin campus, the first shooting massacre of the sort that has become the nation's least favorite pastime. Whitman killed 13 people and wounded 31 from a clock tower, firing for more than an hour before police managed to reach the top and kill him.
Surprisingly, not everyone thinks that the timing is super great, weird, right? Like Clif Drummond, who was a 22-year-old student who helped bandage those wounded by Whitman's rampage.
"I think it was a careless decision by whoever made it to not realize that it would be the 50th anniversary of the shooting," said Drummond. "For us, it's not about the implementation of campus carry. That's someone else's business, someone else's doing."
Students over age 21 were already allowed to carry concealed handguns with a permit in quads and public areas, because Texas, and the new law extends that to classrooms and other campus buildings. So now, if somebody tells you to be quiet in the library, you better consider the consequences of flipping them off!
Private colleges can still ban pistol totin' (most have), and professors can insist on no guns in their offices, if they're just crazy and want to be sitting ducks for the kid who wants the C grade on his term paper changed.
Guns can't be stored or carried in dorms by students who live there, so the real increase in suicide risk is somewhat obviated. But mom and dad can have a pistol in their poke when visiting, because how else can they possibly not be killed?
Open carry of firearms on campus remains banned, because Texas is controlled by liberal commies who hate freedom, we guess.
Of course, it passed. I am so tired of Texas..
Yeah, I'll stop with the "rootin-tootin" caricatures of Texans when the US stops talking about pushy New Yorkers, dumb Southerners, and the fruits and nuts of California, etc.