“There is both a general concern about the dangers that handguns inherently present, as well as specific concerns. Campus mental health professionals, who regularly face the reality that suicide is a leading cause of death among university students, are concerned that the presence of handguns will lead to an increase in accidental and self-inflicted wounds. Campus law enforcement personal are particularly concerned about the ability of their officers, each a highly trained professional, to distinguish – in colloquial terms – the good guys from the bad guys on a crowded campus when several persons may have guns visible in an incident. And personnel in our laboratories and hospitals are concerned about their environments where gasses and chemicals under pressure may present unique dangers were a firearm to be discharged.” – UT Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa in a letter to Governor Rick Perry opposing concealed carry on campus
So does that mean that police are not allowed to discharge, or even carry, their weapons in a laboratory or a hospital? He seems to think that if you give a person a gun they will be fondling it constantly and it will just go off. The only reason a shot would be fired in such a “dangerous” location would be if there was a self defense scenario.
The only thing that gets fondled on a regular basis here is the lukewarm yoghurt pump action, but with proper attention the risk of negligent discharge is kept to a bare minimum.
Ha ha ah, lol. He said campus police are highly trained. That’s a good one.
Well, for what it’s worth, way back when I lived in Gainesville, there were three law enforcement agencies in town: Gainesville PD, Alachua Co SO, and the UFPD. Only one was nationally accredited at that time. Guess which one.
Probably UFPD. Beacause they had 20 officers and all the time in the world to get it. Much much harder for a major Metro PD to obtain. Not impossible, just harder due to the size. Back in the 90’s, that was a big deal for many PDs. Most PDs belived that achieving national accreditation meant lower liabity costs, better performance from their officers, more credibility in court, etc. Once they realized that all the standard policies and procedures in the world did not make up for an ill trained or abusive officer, many just let their accreditation slide or gave up in favor of more practical policies. Many larger PDs like the LAPD don’t hold national certification. They’re just too complex and turnover makes it a losing battle. NYPD is accredited but methinks there’s more to that than just a job well done. Accreditation costs money and in the end it has to be sold as a plus in order for a PD to undergo the process. It behooves the governing organization to have the NYPD accredited to give it “credibility”. The truth less pretty and as many others here believe, I doubt they are 100% in compliance.
Accreditation does not equal “highly trained”. Accreditation is a set of standards and uniform policies with a national organization. (Uniform as in consistent, not what you wear).
Kinda like………………Paul Blart……………Mall Cop!
I laughed too. The laugh of desperate irony.
Seems to me that a very high percent of the UT student body is too young to get concealed handgun licenses.
I actually like when people use the line about “a bunch of kids right out of high school walking around with concealed weapons,” because I can immediately respond, “That’s not an issue, and here’s why,” and get to work on changing their minds. It gives me an “in.”
I agree totally, it gives you a perfect opportunity to change flawed thinking.
I guess that most of the US Army and USMC recruits must NOT be “right out of high school”?!?!?!?
Something must be working right, as you sure don’t hear of many recruits going sideways and they get to play with the REAL DEAL…………….you know, the ones with multi-position selector switches.
Comments like this show how much the average person DOESN’T know about guns and who is carrying them. I think these people would shocked and even appalled to know how prevalent concealed carry is every day all around them. It doesn’t make them any less safe, just more aware of reality.
Yep, Texas is not without it’s share of liberals, and they managed to defeat campus carry a couple years ago. Ironically, about a year or so ago a dude ran through the campus at UT Austin with an AK-47 and entered a campus building where he shot himself. For whatever reason he didn’t shoot anyone else, and of course, the police didn’t get to him until it was all over.
Yet Cigarroa still lives in a unicorn and rainbows world. Incredible…
Cigarroa is a cool name, but he looks like a vulture about to puke up a big meal.
My writing sucks (Texas Public Schools), so don’t judge me too much.
“To the office of Governor Rick Perry,
Sir, I encourage you to allow the passage of a bill that enables the students of this fine state to carry on campus.
As you may very well know, some colleges have turned into dangerous places, especially at night. At my own campus (UT Arlington) the parking lots and book store are no strangers to gang violence, meth heads and addicts. With no real way to defend myself, especially while walking to my car, I feel as though I would be a victim.
Despite from what you may have read from UT Chancellor Fransisco, CHL holders are NOT what he describes. His letter looks as though it is from a man who has seen far too many movies, has never held a weapon or worse, is out to further the cause of disarmament as gun free zones have been home to EVERY mass shooting in the US save for one. He even implies that their concern is gunfire in a lab environment. This is insane. If there was a need for defensive fire in a lab, the chemicals present would be of lesser concern than of the madman shooting students. Also, does this imply that campus police aren’t allowed to fight back during an active shooter scenario in the campus labs and hospital?
Again, Chancellor Francis strikes me as a man who is using his vast imagination of Hollywood Movies to further a liberal agenda of perpetuating violence in gun free zones.
Texas CHL holders are not random people given a license to carry. As you know to have a CHL you have to pass a stringent background check, demonstrate competence with a fire arm and show that we are responsible gun owners lest our CHL be revoked. We are good people who only want to defend ourselves without resorting to vomit, urine, whistles or call boxes.
Also, Michigan has open carry and Texas does not? We need to change that as well.
Thank you for time sir,”
You know what happens when we can’t carry our heaters because we might break a containment of some dangerous materials? The xenomorphs win, that’s what. Colonial marines die, game over man, game over. Can Hicks at least still carry that shotgun?
Maybe we could build a fire, sing a couple of songs, huh? Why don’t we try that?
Can we ban “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore” and “Kumbaya”?
No, wait, those are the ONLY two campfire songs.
That’s a negative flame units only.
Okay. We have several canisters of CM-20. I say we go back in there and nerve gas the whole f**kin’ nest.
Nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
“And personnel in our laboratories and hospitals are concerned about … dangers were a firearm to be discharged.”
What about students who are concerned about their own personal safety for events where:
(a) a lowlife is happy to kill them for their sneakers,
(b) a scumbag tries to rape a young women, and/or
(c) a spree killer chooses their campus?
The irony? If lots of people were armed, it would drastically reduce the probability of any of those events ever occurring and thus any danger that someone associates with firearms.
They have a lot of bean eaters on campus & figure the whole place could go up? I really didn’t think they could make it past “stupid”, imagine my surprise, Randy
Let me try to understand. I should be disarmed and unable to protect myself because:
– If I fire a weapon to shoot a ‘bad guy’, it might damage lab experiments. But they might be okay if it was just a murderous lunatic shooting the place up instead.
– Instead of getting cornered and shot in cold blood by an attacker, the campus police might come to the scene while I still have my gun out, might get trigger happy and and shoot at me and might actually be able to hit me. Maybe.
– I might suddenly decide to be an irresponsible fool, take my gun out to play with it and it might just go off and accidentally shoot someone.
These scenarios are so far out there in the land of make-believe that I can’t imagine how they are in any way more imperative than the need for a concealed carry gun to defend yourself against a shooter.
“Hey, Apone, we can’t have any firing in there. Collect magazines from everyone.”
“What are we supposed to use, harsh language?!!”
The minimum age for a carry license is twenty-one. These gun control freaks keep talking about freshmen, but the people most likely to have a license are the faculty and staff. But oh, dear, by all means, ban concealed carry because we regularly run volatile experiments in my English classes…
If it does not pass, my concern is some nut job will decide perfect opportunity for “glory” not unlike Charles Whitman in 1966. BTW, missed being on campus that day due my mom not wanting to a day off work to tour UT with my brother, who was starting there in the fall. We went on the Saturday before. He bitched and moaned the whole time. When came in from work, Monday afternoon, I said “guess we missed all the excitement at UT today, said turn on the News and went for a long walk. Memory of that tragic event is as clear today as it was 47 yrs ago. My college days are long past but I vehemently support campus carry.
Hope all you Texans are doing what I’m doing which is emailing and calling your reps. Also as much as I despise the man you must contact David Dewhurst he is going to be the gatekeeper on these issues.
Questions I’d like to ask Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa:
“Are your mental health professionals concerned about students who
become victims of rape because they could not defend themselves?”
“Are the psychological effects of a death that occurred through self-
defense worse than the effects of a rape or physical assault?”
“Even if the increased presence of firearms leads to an increase in
accidental wounds, why would that affect your mental health
professionals?”
“Are firearms the root cause of depression and suicidal thoughts?”
“Will the increase of firearms cause an increase in the number of
students undergoing depression and having suicidal thoughts?”
“Since firearms do not cause depression and suicide, if there is an
increase in firearm related suicides, won’t there be a decrease in
other methods?”
“Are your campus’ LEOs incapable of taking training in target recognition?”
“Are your campus’ LEOs incapable of training for school shooting incidents?”
“If you have gasses and chemicals that are immediately dangerous to health
should a leak or puncture occur, why aren’t they already in a physically
secure area?”
That quote is all about scary possibilities. What we know with absolute certainty will happen is violent crime against students. If students are allowed to carry then it’s possible that some of those things Ciggaroa mentions might happen, but we know with absolute certainty that at least some of those violent crimes against students will be stopped. Certainty trumps possibility, even if possibility is brandishing fear.
“…suicide is a leading cause of death among university students.”
Precisely what does that mean? Number one? Top five? Ten?
“Campus law enforcement personal… each a highly trained professional…”
LMFAO, precisely what does THAT mean? How many range hours a year? How many rounds per qualification?
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