Texas Style

In Texas the state legislature convenes for 140 calendar days every odd-numbered year. The biennial session is currently in Austin and with massive Republican majorities in both chambers,  a bill which passed the Senate but died in the House two years ago is certain to pass this time around:

Campus Concealed Carry Coming

What amazes me, is the dialog from people who seem to be totally oblivious to the evidence on this issue.

"Things do look bleak," said Colin Goddard, assistant director of federal legislation for the Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence, who was in Austin recently to lobby against the bills.

Goddard was a student at Virginia Tech when he was shot four times in his French class. Student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people, including 10 in Goddard's classroom, before shooting himself. Goddard dismisses the idea that another student with a gun could have stopped the killer.

"People tell me that if they would have been there, they would have shot that guy. That offends me," Goddard said. "People want to be the hero, I understand that. They play video games and they think they understand the reality. It's nothing like that."

A few short years ago, Colin was the pop up in a shooting gallery and got hit four times while 32 of his classmates died. That appears to be his qualification for his job with Brady.

He blissfully ignores the fact that the shooter was undeterred by laws prohibiting carry on campus. He is willing to ignore the history in the 39 states with extensive concealed carry right now. He won't confess that shootings on campus have occurred with increasing regularity over the last 25 years. He doesn't notice that the supposedly extensive campus police and security force was not able to mitigate the shootings he experienced even slightly.

He is totally focussed on the misguided idea that a person has no right to fight for their own life but should wait patiently curled under their desk for the grim reaper to appear by their side. He won't acknowledge the possibility that undisclosed guns in a classroom might have deterred the shooter let alone the very high probability that defensive reaction could have ended the massacre.

I learned long ago as I face my classrooms in Colorado, where we did not have a campus policy prohibiting licensed concealed carry, that there are some very weird students in today's world. I am not enhanced in my safety by being disarmed in their presence. On the contrary, I recognized the threat and prepared myself accordingly.

Today the campus where I teach does have a gun-free policy. I still recognize the threat and prepare myself accordingly.

Enactment of the proposed legislation will be a good thing. But, for me very little will change.