Texas open carry discussion can’t end here

1/14/16 9:22pm

As students come back to Rice in the new year, they can be thankful that they are returning once again to a weapons-free campus as the university has obtained an exemption from the Texas law permitting individuals to openly carry a holstered handgun (see p. 3). Although this prohibition may seem limiting to the few individuals who could appropriately use a gun, the Thresher feels the campus is a far safer environment without concealed or open carry.

Many of the 15 percent of students who voted in favor of allowing guns on Rice campus raised the concern that the community must be able to respond quickly in a potential live shooter situation. However, this concern assumes students carrying guns will be able to use them appropriately in these situations; obtaining a license to carry does not entail adequate training. Individuals must pass a 25-question, multiple-choice exam and achieve only 70 percent proficiency on the shooting test. According to the Texas Department of Safety, less than a thousand of the over 240,000 Texans who applied for a gun license in 2014 were denied. Moreover, this test is conducted not in a high-pressure, stressful situation and does not involve any sort of active shooter training. Texas law also does not require any further training to be permitted to carry openly. 

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Rice University Police Department must respond to student’s concerns that they may not be able to effectively and quickly keep students safe in an active shooter situation. However, data shows that such situations are rarely resolved by the actions of armed civilians.

Though the administration’s commendable choice to opt out has prevented Texas’ new gun law from adversely impacting life on Rice campus itself, the law still affects every Rice student. As soon as one of us steps off campus into the public spaces of Houston, we are entering a place where guns can be carried openly. While many Houston restaurants and stores have decided to prohibit open carry or any sort of firearms on their premises, the new law still creates a public environment in which anyone could be wielding an intimidating and frightening weapon, in which poorly trained gun holders can accidentally kill, and in which confrontations can rapidly escalate into deadly situations.

Because the new law does affect every member of the Rice community, whether or not they are from Texas, the Thresher urges students, faculty and administration to fight against expanded carry of weapons, whether through voting, joining organizations or supporting businesses that reject weapon carry on their premises. We are luckily not in the position of public universities across the state, which do not have the choice to prevent concealed carry despite the fact that such a policy was against the desire of the huge majority of students and faculty in almost every institution. For this, we can be thankful; however, we cannot allow ourselves to become complacent in opposing the expansion of firearm carry.

Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the Thresher editorial staff. All other opinion pieces represent solely the opinion of the
piece’s author.

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