Courtesy of Flickr Commons "No student shall, within the precincts of the University, keep or use any spiritous or vinous liquors, keep or use weapons or arms of any kind…" Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, University of Virginia, (1824)

Contents

I. A Brief History of Guns on Campuses and Campus Carry in Texas

II. A Call to Action

Overall Goals

How to prepare for the 2017 Texas State Legislative Session

A Primer on Campus Carry

Sample Talking Points

Conclusion

I. A Brief History of Guns on Campuses and Campus Carry in Texas

One thing, however, that may not have occurred to some in the crowd is how much time, organization, and effort something like “opting-out” would actually take to succeed in a Republican-controlled House and Senate whose number one legislative priority (out of 260) in 2017 is passing a so-called “Permitless Carry” bill, which would eliminate the need for any training or license to carry a handgun in Texas, including in the buildings and classrooms of its higher education institutions. Unless you’re a fan of Georgia’s “guns everywhere” law - where the far from gun-shy Governor, nonetheless, rejected campus carry this past May in a veto note that cited Thomas Jefferson’s prohibition and the DC vs Heller decision - things go further downhill from there. The 2017 Texas Republican Platform additionally calls for the elimination of “all gun-free zones”, which on campuses currently include sensitive areas such as scientific laboratories. Although the passing of such legislation may sound implausible to some, identical or similar gun-friendly measures have passed in a number of other states. Indeed, for years many Texans thought campus carry would never be approved by the Texas Legislature. Well, eventually it was during the 2015 Legislative Session, along with open-carry of handguns.

In other words, unless we in Texas get organized, motivated, and move forward together, “opt-out” for public universities and community colleges is a pipe-dream, and guns on campuses could get a whole lot worse.

II. A Call to Action!

In order to continue being effective, the unprecedented grassroots campaign and protest that has emerged against campus carry in Texas over the last year should consider re-examining how resources are distributed within the movement and devote significant energy towards opening a “new chapter” to complement its current activities: the legislative action chapter. The reason for this partial shift is simple. If we don’t, we’re not going to get very much accomplished.

If you haven’t previously worked on campus carry during a Texas Legislative Session, or haven’t read the the seminal 2008 RAND study evaluating on-the-street shooting accuracy of the NYC Police Department (preview: it’s not so good) - a category that includes most of us - the rest of this albeit quite long article is highly recommended to help prepare us for what will not be an easy fight.

In Texas, here’s the rub. The time to act is now. To change laws in Texas, or block new harmful proposals, the fight has to be taken to the Texas Legislature, which only meets for 140 days every odd calendar year. This means starting in mid-January, 2017, there’s a window until May 29th, 2017 to influence legislative outcomes that won’t appear again until mid-January 2019.

If you already have a chapter against campus carry at your university or community college and want to work on campus carry in the Texas Legislature, you’ll need to get organized. If you don’t have a chapter, but want to get involved, you’ll have to start one and find other student leaders and organizations in your campus community that would be interested in joining you.

Although some of the below applies to Texas specifically, many of the issues involved in bringing handguns into campuses and classrooms do not. Some of the below information might therefore be helpful to readers working against campus carry in other states.

Lawmakers may find the sections on “Statistics on Texas Handgun Licensees” and “Training of Texas Handgun Licensees” helpful to inform their own work since a fair portion of this information was never introduced during deliberations over SB11 or for other campus carry bills introduced during the last four biennial legislative sessions (i.e. 2009-2015).

1. Overall Goals

There are at least two immediate goals for the 2017 Texas State Legislative session:

Advocate against legislation that would make campus carry worse (e.g. permitless carry, the elimination of gun-free zones on campuses).

Advocate in favor of an amendment that would allow public universities and community colleges the choice of whether to opt-out of campus carry.

There is at least one eventual goal:

Create a Texas-wide coalition of universities and community colleges against campus carry. With one voice we will be stronger and will have a greater ability to influence legislation.

Keep in mind, in the service of both immediate and eventual goals, our aim as campus communities is not to get guns out of Texas. It is only to get guns off our campuses, and primarily out of our buildings and classrooms.

2. How to Prepare for the 2017 Texas State Legislative session

In the collective experience of this article’s signatories (found below), some of whom have significant experience working with the Texas Legislature, here is what needs to happen to create a potentially successful effort to pass legislation that would allow public higher education institutions to opt-out of campus carry and to help stop permitless carry, along with other pro-campus-carry-related legislation, from becoming law. These two below objectives do not necessarily need to be pursued in strict sequential order. In fact, you’re likely to be more effective if you pursue these goals in parallel.

A. Learn more about campus carry and engage with the gun-violence prevention community in Texas

A primer, with links to relevant articles, is included below. (And below the primer are sample talking points drawn from the primer.) You don’t need to be an expert on campus carry to advocate your agenda effectively, but at least a basic working knowledge of the issues involved is necessary.

Reach out to established anti-campus carry university groups in Texas, such as Gun-Free UT (UT-Austin), Students Against Campus Carry (UT-Austin), Gun-Free UH (The University of Houston), or Gun-Free ACC (Austin Community College) to join the Texas public higher education community against guns-in-classrooms.

B. Organize your group and get started working

Develop specific positions with specific tasks and responsibilities within your group. You’ll be much more organized, efficient, effective, and productive this way.

One very important task is to track and monitor permitless carry and pro-campus-carry-related bills in the Texas Legislature that are either introduced by House or Senate Republicans or attached as stipulations to Democrat-sponsored bills. If you don’t know what bills are coming up, you’ll be operating in a vacuum.

Collaborate with other groups, such as those mentioned above, who share common goals.

Find a champion in the Texas Legislature to guide you and be your ally on campus carry.

Perhaps most importantly, there’s messaging. Although it’s important to say how you and other members of your campus community think and feel about guns in your classrooms, to defeat campus carry in the legislature - or to present a compelling case against it to other people, groups, or the media - it’s imperative to develop and use several brief, clear, and well-formulated talking points that are used semi-consistently across the four engagement activities found just below.

Engage with House and Senate Democrats (if such legislators exist in your district) to discuss how to push opt-out legislation and how to stop permitless carry and other legislation that makes campus carry more dangerous.

Organize phone campaigns (and if possible visits) before pro-campus-carry-related bills are filed or receive a hearing to explain why they are bad for public and educational policy.

Recruit members of your campus community to submit oral and written testimony on bills at “committee hearings where public testimony is taken,” held periodically at the Capitol.

Engage within your campus to find allied groups and outside your campus with broad state associations (e.g. Association of Community Colleges, American Federation of Teachers, Texas Association of College and University Police Administrators) to get them on board with your agenda.

3. A Primer on Campus Carry

The below primer, which can also serve as a general resource, provides an overview of facts, figures, and arguments against campus carry from which talking points could be formulated:

History. The framers of The Bill of Rights never intended for the 2nd Amendment (1791) to apply to campuses. When Thomas Jefferson and James Madison founded the University of Virginia, they forbid student from carrying firearms on campus. In fact, the fundamental individual right to bear arms under the 2nd Amendment was only established federally in 2008 (DC vs. Heller). The ruling recognized “Like most rights, the 2nd Amendment is not unlimited,” failing to assert this fundamental right in “sensitive places, such as schools and government buildings.” Although Texas is only required to follow statutory minimums established by the U.S. Supreme Court, neither DC vs. Heller nor any other U.S. Supreme Court ruling has ever asserted this fundamental right in public, let alone on campuses and in classrooms.

Pro-campus-carry argument. Somewhat ironically, the main public proponents of this legislation, Students for Concealed Carry, don’t argue for campus carry under the 2nd Amendment. Aside from practical reasons for supporting the law, at least currently on their website SCC’s epistemology is based on the idea that “self-defense is a human right.” Some may question, however, whether the exercise of this human right in university classrooms should necessarily includes handguns.

Financial Cost. Campus carry may compromise the quality of our education by costing millions of dollars to implement over the next six years. This figure, however, has been contested by several sources as an over-estimate.

Opt-Out. Given the unnecessary risks posed by campus carry, the broad opposition against it in Texas, the prohibition against firearms on campus imposed by the primary author of the 2nd Amendment, and federal recognition by the U.S. Supreme Court that the statutory minimum of the individual right to bear arms under the 2nd Amendment does not include schools, we propose an amendment to SB11 that allows public universities the choice to opt-out of campus carry, which all but three of 41 private colleges and universities in Texas have already done.

4. Sample Talking points

Sample talking points to advocate against campus carry, against other harmful legislative proposals, and in favor of opt-out (based on the above primer) are available here.

Although using talking points consistently across activities is essential, obviously the specific points that are used will depend on the bill(s) that are addressed in your messaging, the audience of your messaging, and the medium (e.g. phone call, email, testimony, in-person conversation) being used for your messaging. By joining the larger community for gun-violence prevention, you can receive further help with your messaging along with additional support for moving forward.

5. Conclusion

As you can probably tell, the 2nd Amendment and campus carry can be touchy subjects. Try to be respectful of the viewpoints of other people and groups, such as those of Students for Concealed Carry, even if you don’t agree with them.

Don’t forget to vote this November 8th!

It is our hope that this article can serve as a starting point for a collaborative effort against campus carry in Texas. We hope to see you along the way!

Sincerely,

Aron Weinberg (Ph.D Candidate at UT-Austin, member of Gun-Free UT, and gun-violence prevention advocate since 2011)

Jorge Canizares Esguerra, Ph.D (Professor at UT-Austin and member of Gun-Free UT)

Rebecca Johnston (Ph.D Student at UT-Austin, member of Gun-Free UT, and gun-violence prevention advocate)

Elyse Avina (Undergraduate at UT-Austin and President of Students Against Campus Carry)

Ana Lopez (Undergraduate at UT-Austin and Vice-President of Students Against Campus Carry)

Alex Colvin (Undergraduate at The University of Houston and Founder of Gun-Free UH)

Julie Wauchope (Professor at Austin Community College and Founder of Gun-Free ACC)

Ritu Mathur, Ph.D (Assistant Professor at The University of Texas at San Antonio and gun-violence prevention advocate)

Patrick Timmons, Ph.D (Lecturer at El Paso Community College and Independent Human Rights Investigator)

Ed Scruggs (Board Member of Texas Gun Sense and gun-violence prevention advocate)

Michael J. Hout (Undergraduate at University of Massachusetts Amherst, Co-Director of The National Network of Students Against Gun Violence, and National Chartering Director at College Democrats of America)

Physicians Against Gun Violence

Stephanie Bonne, MD, FACS (Assistant Professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Trauma and Critical Care Surgeon, and Co-director of the American Medical Women's Association Gun Violence Prevention Task Force)

Kelly Robinson Bernardo, RN (Emergency Room Nurse and former Police Officer)

Daniel Hillen (Gun-violence prevention advocate and independent researcher)