Controversial Campus Gun Possession Bill Gets Hearing Monday

Monday afternoon at 2 p.m. (or upon final adjournment of the House), the House Public Safety Committee will consider a controversial bill that would allow students to carry handguns on the campuses of Texas colleges and universities.

Although the legislation, House Bill 1893 by State Rep. Joe Driver (R-Garland), has some bi-partisan support (not to mention 64 co-authors and four joint-authors), it is sure to cause significant controversy at Monday’s hearing.

Among other things, Texas’ colleges and universities are among the bill’s biggest opponents.

Although opposition from the leadership of Texas’ institutions of higher education has never stopped the Texas Legislature before, it does set up the foundation for the makings of a significant public relations disaster for legislators who support the bill the first time a pissed off permit holder shoots up a campus.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has more on that:

“As one faculty person told me, ‘Do you think I want to pass out those F’s and D’s with somebody in the classroom having a gun?’?” said Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth.

Burnam is a member of the House Public Safety Committee, which will consider the legislation at a hearing Monday.

Another North Texan on the committee, Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, said he believes that students should be able to leave guns in their vehicles on campus parking lots. But he said he is keeping an open mind about whether they should be permitted to carry guns elsewhere on campus.

Calls for this kind of legislation have been rampant since the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, which Driver uses as justification for his bill:

The April 2007 massacre of 32 people at Virginia Tech by a mentally disturbed student ignited a nationwide call for greater safety at colleges. Both sides in the debate over Driver’s bill cite that tragedy in making their case.

“There might have been a lot less people dead” if there had been a legally armed student at Virginia Tech to stop the gunman, Driver said.

Of course, there may have been a lot more dead students, too. Read more:

But others say Driver’s law would spread weapons into colleges, perhaps leading to further violence.

Organizations representing campus police departments and the more than 40 independent colleges and universities in Texas have registered opposition to the bill.

Texas Christian University, Baylor University, Southern Methodist University and the University of Texas System expressed opposition or serious concerns in statements to the Star-Telegram on Friday.

“We’re opposed to the legislation,” Don Mills, TCU’s vice chancellor for student affairs, said in a telephone interview. “It’s our belief that it would make the campus less safe rather than more safe.”

Having guns in a “high-density” environment such as a dorm would create “a potentially dangerous situation,” especially when combined with college drinking, said Mills, who will testify against the bill Monday.

Of course this bill is dangerous. Why it has so many co-sponsors is beyond me. I can see people voting for the bill because they don’t want to cast an anti-gun rights vote before a major election in Texas (a la Ann Richards’ conceal and carry veto), but lending one’s name to legislation that could result in rampant bloodshed on campuses across the state seems a little more like political suicide than anything else.

What chance does the bill have getting out of committee in the House? Let’s take a look. Our prediction is that the bill will pass by one vote.

The members of the House Public Safety Committee are:

Chair:    Rep. Tommy Merritt
Vice Chair:    Rep. Stephen Frost
Rep. Lon Burnam
Rep. Joe Driver
Rep. Phil King
Rep. Tryon D. Lewis
Rep. Barbara Mallory Caraway
Rep. Eddie Rodriguez
Rep. Hubert Vo

Let’s take those whose positions we know for sure first. Driver is a “yes;” and Burnam is a likely “no.” King talks in the Star-Telegram article like he is a “maybe,” but since he’s a co-author of the bill, put him down as a “yes.” Frost, another co-author, should also go down as a “yes.” Merritt, a joint author, is also a “yes.” That leaves Lewis, Mallory Caraway, Rodriguez, and Vo, up in the air.

We’ll predict that Lewis (R-Odessa) will vote in favor of the measure, and will predict that Mallory Caraway, Rodriguez, and Vo (all Democrats) will cast votes against it. If it plays out like that, the final vote should be:

Yeas: Merritt, Frost, Driver, Lewis, King

Nays: Mallory Caraway, Rodriguez, and Vo

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