A young African-American woman with black framed glasses stands to ask her question. “I am outspoken,” she says, eliciting laughter and nods from the women around her, “and my question is, should someone like me, opinionated as I am, be concerned about campus carry?”
This question, asked of me during a June 5 panel discussion at the University of Texas at Austin, reflects the latest tack of anti-campus carry activists. Unable to present factual evidence that the licensed, concealed carry of handguns makes college campuses less safe, they’ve turned to the argument that the law makes it difficult, nay impossible, for academics to debate controversial ideas. This is the latest iteration of opponents’ ever-changing strategy to combat what is commonly known as “campus carry.”
During the 2015 Texas legislative session, Everytown for Gun Safety ran a TV commercial warning Texans that the then-pending campus carry law would “force colleges to allow guns” at “frat parties.” Members of the group’s grassroots division Moms Demand Action visited the capitol and delivered pingpong balls and red plastic cups to lawmakers, along with notes asserting that guns and beer pong don’t mix.
That tactic fell apart when UT-Austin’s campus carry policy working group pointed out that the new law “does not affect fraternity or sorority houses or other private residential facilities” — the locations where almost all college parties occur.
During the fall of 2015, the group Gun Free UT testified at campus forums that campus carry has been proven to lead to an increase in sexual assaults and that — despite the fact that the new law won’t change who can own a gun or possess a gun in a car parked on campus — it will greatly increase the risk of student suicides.
Then the university’s working group issued a report stating, “We found that the evidence does not support the claim that a causal link exists between campus carry and an increased rate of sexual assault. We found no evidence that campus carry has caused an increase in suicide rates on campuses in other states.”
The argument that campus carry will lead to violence is flimsy at best. More than 100 U.S. college campuses have allowed licensed concealed carry for an average of more than six years, with no reports of resulting threats, assaults, suicide attempts or fatalities. The UT-Austin working group reported, “Our examination of states that already have campus carry revealed little evidence of campus violence that can be directly linked to campus carry, and none that involves an intentional shooting.”
Opponents briefly tried arguing that campus carry is a multi-million dollar unfunded mandate on public universities, but that argument fell apart when the chancellors of the state’s university systems testified before the Texas Senate that the new law is expected to constitute a very minimal expense.
With few options left, opponents struggled to settle on a new tactic. Gun Free UT briefly tried rallying support behind the idea that campus carry is a subversive display of “white male power” intended to “push back against the Civil Rights Movement.” I put that nonsense to rest by pointing out that, as a black woman, I’m not interested in promoting white male power or pushing back against the Civil Rights Movement; I just want the means to protect myself.
After much deliberation and many missteps, opponents finally settled on a new strategy — they would claim that campus carry threatens their First Amendment right to freedom of speech and, therefore, impedes the core mission of an institution of higher education.
Despite UT-Austin’s working group report stating, “We reached out to 17 research universities in the seven campus-carry states. … Most respondents reported that campus carry had not had much direct impact on student life or academic affairs,” the argument that concealed carry threatens the very fabric of higher education was chosen as the anti-campus carry movement’s Hail Mary play.
In reality, academics already have no way of knowing if someone is carrying a gun in class. Given that Texas license to carry holders comprise less than 1 percent of undergraduates and are convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon at one-seventh the rate of unlicensed Texans, legally carried guns aren’t the guns to worry about.
Just as anti-campus carry activists aren’t afraid to hold rallies in locations where concealed carry is allowed, they won’t be afraid to have debates in classrooms where it’s allowed. Concealed carry hasn’t changed the tenor of the Texas Capitol or any other location, and it won’t change Texas college campuses.
