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Proposals would let licensed owners tote guns more easily
By DAVID SALEH RAUF
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
Jan. 30, 2009, 9:19PM
AUSTIN — Michael Guzman, a 25-year-old Texas State University senior and Marine veteran, takes his Kimber Ultra Carry II handgun just about everywhere he goes. Except to school.
Texas lawmakers, however, are crafting ways to allow licensed handgun owners to tote their guns more easily. One proposal would let guns be carried on campuses, and another would allow licensed handgun owners to openly brandish their guns in public.
Together, the two issues are likely to be the most contentious gun-related laws of the session.
State Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, is preparing the campus concealed-carry gun measure. He calls it a “safety protection bill” for students and faculty.
“I don’t want to wake up one morning and hear on the news that some madman went on a Texas campus and picked off Texas students like sitting ducks,” Wentworth said. “I’m doing what I can to prevent that from happening in Texas.”
A national debate over guns on college campuses was sparked almost two years ago after the fatal shootings of 32 students at Virginia Tech.
Since then, 17 states have introduced legislation to let students and faculty pack heat on campus. None has passed.
A Texas House study conducted by the Law Enforcement Committee — which noted only 11 U.S. universities allow concealed guns on campus — recommended passing a campus gun bill.
It wouldn’t be the first time the Legislature considered an open-carry measure. In 1997 and 1999, then-state Rep. Suzanna Hupp, a Republican from Lampasas whose parents were shot and killed in the 1991 Luby’s massacre in Killeen, authored similar legislation. The bills didn’t pass.
Wild West attitude feared
Gov. Rick Perry is among those supporting the notion of letting adult students bring handguns on campus if they are licensed to carry them.
The issue has been met with opposition from gun-control advocates, university officials, campus law enforcement and some lawmakers.
Earlier this week, the University of Texas at Austin’s student government overwhelmingly passed a resolution supporting their campus gun ban and calling on “elected officials in Texas to oppose attempts to eliminate campus weapons bans.”
“I don’t want to return to a 19th-century Wild West urban atmosphere for Texas,” said state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth. “I oppose both concealed-carry on campus and open-carry, but psychologically open-carry is the worst by far because of the implications it has when you’re walking down the street.”
Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, said he has not seen the bills but would not be inclined to support guns on campuses. “I think it’s an issue of safety,” he said. “Will that improve or diminish the safety of students? My gut instinct is most members would say it actually diminishes the safety of faculty and staff. … They didn’t pass it before, and they don’t have as good a chance for passing it now.”
Texas State Rifle Association lobbyist Alice Tripp said the group is “not forwarding the issue.”
At present, people with handgun permits have to keep their weapons concealed.
Online push for change
Ian McCarthy, a 22-year-old online marketing entrepreneur in Austin, wants to be able to brandish one openly.
“Criminals want an easy target. When they see you can fight back, they’re going to go somewhere else,” McCarthy said.
He is a member of the national pro-gun group OpenCarry.org, which has raised more than $10,000 online to buy radio and billboard ads across the state and has collected more than 53,000 online Texas signatures in favor of changing the law.
Coleman doubts it will get the nod from fellow lawmakers.
“Open-carry, I think that for most members that would be going too far,” he said.
drauf@express-news.net [/i]
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/6239518.html
Proposals would let licensed owners tote guns more easily
By DAVID SALEH RAUF
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
Jan. 30, 2009, 9:19PM
AUSTIN — Michael Guzman, a 25-year-old Texas State University senior and Marine veteran, takes his Kimber Ultra Carry II handgun just about everywhere he goes. Except to school.
Texas lawmakers, however, are crafting ways to allow licensed handgun owners to tote their guns more easily. One proposal would let guns be carried on campuses, and another would allow licensed handgun owners to openly brandish their guns in public.
Together, the two issues are likely to be the most contentious gun-related laws of the session.
State Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, is preparing the campus concealed-carry gun measure. He calls it a “safety protection bill” for students and faculty.
“I don’t want to wake up one morning and hear on the news that some madman went on a Texas campus and picked off Texas students like sitting ducks,” Wentworth said. “I’m doing what I can to prevent that from happening in Texas.”
A national debate over guns on college campuses was sparked almost two years ago after the fatal shootings of 32 students at Virginia Tech.
Since then, 17 states have introduced legislation to let students and faculty pack heat on campus. None has passed.
A Texas House study conducted by the Law Enforcement Committee — which noted only 11 U.S. universities allow concealed guns on campus — recommended passing a campus gun bill.
It wouldn’t be the first time the Legislature considered an open-carry measure. In 1997 and 1999, then-state Rep. Suzanna Hupp, a Republican from Lampasas whose parents were shot and killed in the 1991 Luby’s massacre in Killeen, authored similar legislation. The bills didn’t pass.
Wild West attitude feared
Gov. Rick Perry is among those supporting the notion of letting adult students bring handguns on campus if they are licensed to carry them.
The issue has been met with opposition from gun-control advocates, university officials, campus law enforcement and some lawmakers.
Earlier this week, the University of Texas at Austin’s student government overwhelmingly passed a resolution supporting their campus gun ban and calling on “elected officials in Texas to oppose attempts to eliminate campus weapons bans.”
“I don’t want to return to a 19th-century Wild West urban atmosphere for Texas,” said state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth. “I oppose both concealed-carry on campus and open-carry, but psychologically open-carry is the worst by far because of the implications it has when you’re walking down the street.”
Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, said he has not seen the bills but would not be inclined to support guns on campuses. “I think it’s an issue of safety,” he said. “Will that improve or diminish the safety of students? My gut instinct is most members would say it actually diminishes the safety of faculty and staff. … They didn’t pass it before, and they don’t have as good a chance for passing it now.”
Texas State Rifle Association lobbyist Alice Tripp said the group is “not forwarding the issue.”
At present, people with handgun permits have to keep their weapons concealed.
Online push for change
Ian McCarthy, a 22-year-old online marketing entrepreneur in Austin, wants to be able to brandish one openly.
“Criminals want an easy target. When they see you can fight back, they’re going to go somewhere else,” McCarthy said.
He is a member of the national pro-gun group OpenCarry.org, which has raised more than $10,000 online to buy radio and billboard ads across the state and has collected more than 53,000 online Texas signatures in favor of changing the law.
Coleman doubts it will get the nod from fellow lawmakers.
“Open-carry, I think that for most members that would be going too far,” he said.
drauf@express-news.net [/i]
