(Reuters) – A new law went into effect in Texas on Monday that allows certain students to bring guns into classrooms, with supporters saying it could prevent mass shootings and critics saying the measure will endanger safety on campuses.
The so-called state “campus carry” law allows people 21 and older with a concealed handgun license to carry pistols in classrooms and buildings throughout public colleges, including the University of Texas system, one of the nation’s largest with an enrollment of more than 214,000 students.
A student walks at the University of Texas campus in Austin, Texas, U.S. on June 23, 2016. REUTERS/Jon Herskovitz/File Photo
The tower in the background is the tower from which Charles Whitman, in 1966, shot and killed 16 people. You don’t need to look at the picture very long to discern the hidden message. Whoever chose that picture for the Reuters piece was being subtle. But I have a vivid memory for images, and I remember seeing that tower, when I was a kid, on the front of newspapers.
But the despicable creeps who passed the law have another message for you: they timed the passage of the bill for the 50th anniversary of the mass murder. What kind of minds are you producing, Texas!?
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican who supports campus carry, said a gunman could already bring a firearm on to campus, and the law could prevent mass shootings because someone with a licensed concealed weapon could be ready to confront a gunman.
Texas Governor Greg Abbot is clearly a profoundly clueless human being, who thinks that someone with a handgun is going to, what, shoot a sniper 300 feet up in a tower? Apparently he’s been playing too much Call Of Duty, or maybe he’s just got the NRA’s hand up his anus, and they’re using him like a floppy sort of meat sockpuppet.
Does Governor Abbot think he’s clever? When I think about his thought process, I feel like I just stepped barefoot on some dogshit and it’s squeezing up between my toes. I feel an irresistable urge to bathe.
I remember that tower, too.
wow
50 years
chigau@#1:
When I write postings like this one, I wish I had resisted the temptation to do a blog. It’s just so goddamn depressing.
Apparently Texas governors are unable to learn ANYTHING in less than 50 years; they are that slow.
Marcus Ranum @ 2
Isn’t the Texas governor’s job mostly just giving assent to death penalties, so just being able to scribble on a line is enough to get through the job?
Ice Swimmer@#3:
It’s a miracle they manage to cash the donation check from the NRA.
What’s so unintelligent about sending (yet another) xtreem dogwhistle to the loyal artillery-Americans in an election year?
I wonder what sort of professors will want to teach at a place where they know that any student who is unhappy about a bad grade might be packing heat?
I predict an utter plunge in the UT rankings.
The “good guy with a gun” scenario is ridiculous to the core. More guns/more bullets flying is not a safer situation. Hero wannabes seem to think that, like in the movies, bullets have eyes and never hit innocent people and always kill the bad guys. If I was an educator, I would not want to have to teach in the Texas system.
How many times do you hear: “Well, a couple of people were shot, unfortunately, but luckily there was a Good Guy With A Gun who took down the shooter…”?
I live in Australia, but news reports on American shootings never say this. Everybody runs. If there are Good Guy With A Gun stories out there, feel free to share them.
polishsalami@#8:
The NRA does make a big deal about the occasional “good guy with a gun” stories. Given the ridiculous amount of gun crime in the US there are always going to be a few situations where it works out favorably; the NRA cherry-picks those.
Concealed. Discounting a sudden outbreak of trench coat wearing, or a ‘walk like Frankenstein’s monster day’, I think the implied message is that we are talking about handguns. Funny thing, the police in 1966 had lots of handguns, and were trained to use them.
Guns are tools. Handguns are specialized tools. There are precious few times and places where a handgun is useful. There are even fewer times and places where a handgun is the best tool for the job. No matter how much we fetishize handguns they are still specialist tools for situations which most Americans will never experience.
lorn@#10:
You are correct. Most rational people, when they encounter that sort of situation, pause to think things through. Which means that bad things happen.
Years ago I had a friend ask me to give her some tips on shooting. Later that day we were over at my studio and I put on a leather jacket and handed her a loaded greengas airsoft h&k usp. I told her it was ready to go, so be careful, and she started examining it while I walked across the room, picked up my motorcycle helmet and put it on. Then I said “I am going to come take that from you if you can’t hit me first.”
The first time I just walked over and took it. The second time she tried a warning shot to see if the gun worked, and I took it. It took 5 tries before she was able to bounce a shot off the front of the helmet. And then I started dodging.
The thing is that to use a gun effectively you have to always be a DANGEROUS person. You have to always be ready to shoot anyone. You have to WANT to shoot people. Otherwise you’re too slow. A rational well-intentioned human being is going to think and try to understand the situation, which means they lose to the irrational ill-intentioned person every time. The only way to consistently defeat someone who has a gun and initiative is strategically: be somewhere else.
From the Wikipedia article
Yay for handguns and trained users.