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Issue date: 5/1/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Photo Illustration by Jason Hook If Texas campuses are no longer gun-free zones, the police will have a considerably difficult time distinguishing which students are permitted to hold and who aren't.

The tragedy at Virginia Tech still resonates among students at ASU and a recent bill allowing the carrying of concealed handguns on college campuses in Texas has some students wondering if they would be protected if the unthinkable were to occur.

Senior Pete Parker doesn't think that allowing concealed handguns on campus would do anything to stop violence if it were to occur.

"I'd say if anything, it is going to increase the chance of violence happening on campus," Parker said. "But no matter what, to someone who's motivated enough to cause that much violence will do it no matter what the legislation says."

Rep. Joe Driver R-District 113 who authored the bill said this allowance would remove a gun-free zone, where currently only "bad guys" carry guns.

"(The bill would insure that) those who have gone through the rules, had a background check and abide by the rules can step on a college campus and don't have to disarm themselves," Driver said. "That's the reason these people have gotten their license: to protect themselves."

Driver said the status of the bill is good and will probably come out sometime next week in the house.

"I have over 76 joined co-sponsors who said they will be voting for it if it comes to the floor."

If the legislation passes, Texans who have state-issued, concealed handgun licenses would be allowed to carry a weapon on the grounds of any institution of higher learning in Texas.

"We feel comfortable about it," Driver said. "It's kind of like the weather, you have to be ready for whatever happens."

Although the bill has not been passed yet, UPD is in strong opposition to the bill. According to Chief of University Police James Adams, such legislation would make violence on campus harder to manage.

"While we support the rights of people to bear arms and to carry weapons and that type of thing, obviously our responsibility is to protect a college campus," Adams said. "This would make the possibility of someone with a weapon harder to manage."

Adams took a strong position on the matter.

"Some would argue that it makes students safer, and I can see some of those arguments. The other side of the argument is it makes those students less safe in that you're relying on people who have limited training," Adams said.

When ASU's student senate was asked about the bill, they had yet to formulate a stance.

According to a press release from Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, who introduced the bill, laws as they stand now leave campuses helpless.

"I have no desire to wake up one morning and read in the newspaper, or hear on the radio or watch on television a news report that 32 Texas college students were gunned down like sitting ducks by some deranged gunman, as happened at Virginia Tech, due to a state law in Texas that makes college kids defenseless against this type of random violence which results in needless tragedy," Wentworth said.

State law mandates that only Texans who are 21 years of age or older who have been trained and received a thorough background check may be licensed to carry a concealed weapon in Texas. Private institutions are able to opt out of the law.

Adams said his main concern with this legislation would be the inability for officers to correctly identify a violent shooter.

"What I see as being extremely difficult is officers responding to an active shooter or some other type of incident," Adams said. "How are they going to be able to distinguish who the people with the guns are the good guys and who the people with the guns are the bad guys? So I think from a concealed to carry permit standpoint, it places them in some danger because the officers won't know by just visibly seeing them and knowing who is who."

The UPD currently uses ASUalert, an alert system that allows the department to contact students in the event of an emergency.

The bill to allow handguns on university campuses was introduced on Feb. 26 and was passed by the Out-of-House Committee. The bill is now waiting to be heard by the Texas House of Representatives. If passed, the new law would take effect September 2009.

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