PA Bill Number: SB99
Title: In county boards of elections, further providing for expenses of county boards and of primaries and elections to be paid by county, expenses of ...
Description: In county boards of elections, further providing for expenses of county boards and of primaries and elections to be paid by county, expenses of ... ...
Last Action: Re-referred to APPROPRIATIONS
Last Action Date: May 8, 2024
University of Texas Plays Irrelevant "Race Card" in Concealed Carry on Campus Debate :: 10/09/2015
Austin, TX -(AmmoLand.com)- After watching Monday’s campus carry forum at the University of Texas, I thought I’d heard every asinine argument against allowing the licensed concealed carry of handguns on Texas college campuses; then I woke up Tuesday to an editorial from a UT student claiming, “Campus Carry Fuels White Privilege [and the] Criminalization of Black People.”
UT-Austin’s second campus carry forum included some startlingly inaccurate statements from opponents of the law. At one point, an assistant history professor told the audience, “The presence of concealed handguns on college campuses does increase the rate of rape,” despite the fact that there is no record of an armed CHL holder ever being involved in a sexual assault on any of the 150+ college campuses where campus carry is currently allowed.
At another point, a staff member claimed, “Violent crimes for CHL holders, among Texans, are 4.8 times more likely than those who do not hold licenses,” despite the fact that Texas Department of Public Safety statistics show the exact opposite — a Texas CHL holder is only about 1/5 as likely to be convicted of a violent crime. This circus of misrepresented facts and outright falsehoods led me to believe that opponents of the individual right to self-defense had stooped as low as they possibly could, until I read Loyce Gayo’s October 6 op-ed in The Daily Texan.
Gayo, an African and African Diaspora Studies senior from Houston, argues that, because police may respond differently to a black man carrying a gun than to a white man carrying a gun, allowing the licensed concealed carry of handguns on Texas colleges is….Okay, honestly, I’ve read the article four times, and I’m still not 100% sure what Gayo is trying to argue. After opening with the assertion that police officers treat white gun owners differently than black gun owners, Gayo touches on the racist roots of gun control in America — something I have talked about for years as a black gun owner (http://is.gd/j300Xn) — and then concludes, “It is crucial to consider how the aftermath of this legislation can potentially perpetuate the criminalization of Black students. Campus carry does not consider the safety of students of color. Based on the historical precedent of Black people framed as dangerous, the new gun policy will endanger Black students who choose to exercise their new rights.”
What Gayo and the Daily Texan Editor fail to realize about the new Campus Carry law is that the law only applies to concealed handguns, as in concealed from plain view. While there have been studies that suggest that blacks and whites are profiled differently by police when the police can visually see that a gun is present, the police will not specifically consider anyone with a Concealed Handgun License to be dangerous, unless the gun is openly carried, as the law states, “in a manner calculated to cause alarm.”
On the contrary, police are often relieved to have an encounter with a CHL holder, because a CHL holder demonstrates a willingness to be a law-abiding citizen and a responsible gun owner, and is statistically less likely to commit a crime than a law enforcement officer. How can a police officer consider a black man with a concealed handgun to be any more dangerous than a white man with a concealed handgun? It is impossible to profile someone on the basis of having a concealed handgun, because the gun is invisible! I am not suggesting that an officer cannot profile based on race alone, but you cannot consider a black man with an invisible gun to be more dangerous than a white man with an invisible gun unless you truly believe that blacks are intrinsically more dangerous than whites. When a gun is concealed, profiling has nothing to do with the presence of a gun on the person.
Perhaps I’m wrong, but I think Gayo is actually suggesting that racist police officers make it too dangerous for black students to exercise their right to self-defense and that the answer to this problem, rather than reforming our police departments or educating the public, is to make sure everybody is completely reliant on those same racist cops for protection. I, however, have a better solution: If this is the quality of student being turned out by our state’s flagship university, the best end to the campus carry debate is to shut down our state colleges altogether. It is clear that neither Gayo nor the Daily Texan editor did any research on the law that was passed before releasing a fear-mongering race-baiting article clearly designed to pull a race issue into a topic where race is irrelevant. Is this the future of journalism? Is this the kind of shoddy work the University of Texas rewards with a degree?
If ‘campus carry equals white privilege’ is the best Texas’s institutions of higher education have to offer, it’s clear to me that these supposed havens of free expression and intellectual discourse are nothing more than elaborate scams designed to brainwash students, parents, and taxpayers toward a political agenda.
About Central Texas Gun Works:
Central Texas Gun Works is a local Austin training school and retailer of firearms, ammunition, and safety accessories. In addition to holding regular Texas concealed handgun license (CHL) classes, Central Texas Gun Works is also a licensed training school for Texas Private Security Bureau (PSB) Level II, Level III, and Level IV private security classes. Michael Cargill, owner of Central Texas Gun Works, has served as a Texas DPS-certified CHL instructor for ten years and has over 20 years of firearms experience. He is also an NRA-certified Pistol Instructor, Chief Range Safety Officer, and Personal Protection Inside the Home Instructor. In addition, he is a Texas DPS-licensed PSB Instructor for Level II and Level III private security classes. As of 2015, Michael has taught over 10,000 applicants the required material to obtain a Texas CHL, and has a 99% success rate.
For more information visit www.centraltexasgunworks.com.
