(courtesy nrailafrontlines.com)

The Texas Senate just voted to give final approval to Senate Bill 11, the Campus Carry bill, as modified by the conference committee. The vote was 21-10, which was pretty much along party lines, with only one exception — Democrat Juan Chuy Hinojosa voted for the bill. The bill now still needs a final vote in the House, which stands adjourned until 2:00 p.m. tomorrow . . .

The Campus Carry bill includes the ability for University presidents to designate certain areas as exempt from carry, but the bill’s author, Sen. Birdwell, spoke extensively to establish legislative intent on the matters. The conference committee report stated that while presidents may specify “no-carry” zones, they have to be for specific justifiable reasons and cannot “generally” prohibit carry on the campus itself.

Birdwell gave some very specific examples — he mentioned one Texas university that has a biocontainment lab, where strains of Anthrax, Ebola, and other such viruses are kept on hand for research purposes, and that a university president might choose to specifically exempt that particular building.  However, Birdwell made it very clear that exceptions to the carry rule should be rare.

Other Senators raised questions including “what about a common area where a television is present — if they’re all gathered and watching a football game, that could get rowdy” (paraphrased) and Birdwell said that definitely no, that is not a good enough or justifiable reason to exclude carry.

Some of the questions were along the lines of inflammatory statements; Sen. Sylvia Garcia asked if a freshman dorm could be excluded during finals week, as she recalled that being the most traumatic time of her college years.  Birdwell’s response was succinct: “No, ma’am.”

Garcia ended her testimony by saying “campuses should be an environment free and open to learning… and guns are a horrible dysfunction to that and a real danger to our children.” Birdwell disagreed, pointing out that CHL holders are not children, they’re a minimum of 21 years of age.

Sen. Huffman clarified with Sen. Birdwell that there would not be open carry on college campuses. Even if HB 910 is signed by Gov. Abbott, open carry was specifically precluded from college campuses by design of the original bills. While it would be legal for a CHL holder to carry concealed on the public grounds and sidewalks of, say, the University of Texas at Austin, it would not be legal for that same CHL holder to openly carry there.

In an unrelated note, University of Dallas president Tom Keefe stated why he’s opposed to Campus Carry: “The only people I want having guns are police and the bad guy,” he said. “I don’t want police to have to sort out who is John Wayne coming to the rescue.”

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29 COMMENTS

  1. Wow, so the U of Dallas president is fine with bad guys having guns and opposed to victims having them. That was pretty bald faced. Usually you have to read between the lines a little.

    • That alone should be used over and over as an example of why we fight so hard for carry rights. He said bad guys need to be armed. He wants them armed, but we’re the lunatics…

  2. “The only people I want having guns are police and the bad guy”

    That might be the single dumbest thing that has ever been said ever in the history of mankind. What a freakin’ nitwit!

    • In my house we don’t play cops and robbers. We play “armed citizens and robbers.” The cops only come to clean up the mess.

  3. Admit it, doomsayers — this has been the best year for gun rights in Texas since it adopted concealed carry.

    There’s a lot of work to do, but this is great stuff.

    • Don’t pop the cork yet, house still has to approve this and they have all of 1 chance to get it right.

    • This is great stuff, no joke. This is also Texas politics, and aside from the politics, the system is designed to kill bills. Things that should have been slam dunks this session have died on the vine, been twisted and turned or just plain shot down. Ain’t nuthin fo sho until the Gov slaps his sig on it.

  4. Dang Texas is on a role, keep it moving! Soon Texas will begin to seem like Arizona if they keep this up.

    • Tiny pieces of wet sky are falling here but so is the Temp in Hell Michigan, but I don’t think it has frozen over yet!

  6. fewer states where Shannon can send her “children” for college for fear of guns. . . . . . . #winning

  7. So you have a liberal university president openly admitting ONLY bad guys and police should have guns. The innocent victims who are law abiding, who needn’t have been put in the position of being a victim had they had the ability to exercise their Constitutional Right, should just be happy being placed in body bags.

  9. We can have fun with this. U Dallas Pres:

    “I want rapists armed, and their victims disarmed.”

    “I want thieves and drug dealers on campus armed, and innocent, law-abiding students and visitors whom the victimize disarmed.”

    • “The only people I want having guns are police and the bad guy,” he said. “I don’t want police to have to sort out who is John Wayne coming to the rescue.”

      It was a plea for simplification of a complex situation. Such wishes are often found in the simple-minded, but should be rare in those with the academic stature of a University of Dallas president.

  11. Liberals, statists, “intellectual elite”. The man said it clearly and unequIvically.

    “We only want the criminal and the government to be armed.”

    They really do show their absolute contempt for the “common man”.

  12. I guess he just has to wait until “John Wayne” saves someone’s life and then he’ll state it was not a normal event and they just could have waited for the campus security or the police to save the day.

  13. They’ve got 10 hours to get it to an adoption and final vote. It also is basically the last item up based on when the conference report was distributed. They have the votes. It’s just a matter of delay tactics to run out clock.

  14. The stupid! It hurts! I guess education abandoned logic and critical thinking decades ago.

  16. And we care what Tom Keefe says? The answer to that is a big fat no. It carries as much weight as Bloombags and I gotta tell you, that’s not very damn much.

  17. ” However, Birdwell made it very clear that exceptions to the carry rule should be rare.”

    And does the bill have any teeth to enforce such an exception? Sure, the plan is for it to be rare, but anyone with 2 brain cells knows the liberal college leaders will declare the ENTIRE area off limits if they get the chance.

    • Well, it is called “concealed” for a reason. With the right handgun even pocket carry is pretty easy.
      Been doing it for years with Ruger LCR, even a Ruger SP101 with 2.25″ .

      • Good news. Looks like they posted a new calendar for today. SB11 is third up, and there are a host of bills behind. Many of which are important to their Dem authors and sponsors. Enough so that they may just forego the BS to avoid sacrificing them.

        I expect that Martinez-Fletcher, Anchia and perhaps Canales will try to derail with a parlimentary point of order, other than that, I’m not sure they can run out the clock.

  18. Actually, not having a gun in a bio contaminant lab is something I am OK with.

    if some yoot/punk comes in waving a weapon demanding whatever, the Lab staff should be like: “GTFO or we will inject you with Ebola AND Anthrax….” Also, I am certain such a place has a pretty high level of security anyways, cause some of that stuff you NEVER want it to leave.

  19. I have an idea: set up a betting pool with your anti-gun friends (at least, those of you who still have them).

    Every month, each of you puts $10 into the pot.

    If the year ends with no campus shootings, or if there was a campus shooting by someone not authorized to carry (that is, not a CHL holder), but a campus carrier (that is, CHL holder who is not law enforcement) engaged the shooter and stopped them, you get the pot.

    Otherwise, they get the pot.

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