University of Texas campus carry panel’s gun recommendations prompt lawsuit threat

The law, which takes effect on August 1, 2016, allows a person who has a licence to carry to have a concealed handgun both on the grounds and in the buildings of an institution of higher education. While the average age of students living in university housing skews younger (only 313 contract holders this fall were over 21), off-campus students participate in study groups, social events and other dormitory activities, which makes application of the recommendations by the working group impractical. Before then, each university in Texas must decide how it wants to implement the law.

McRaven has said the law would make campuses less safe.

President Gregory Fenves will use these recommendations to form the official policy – that policy then has to be approved by the board of regents.

The report comes a day after a gun rights group announced plans to hold a fake mass shooting demonstration near UT-Austin on Saturday.

“The only possible way to avoid this result would be for the University to provide gun lockers at strategic points around campus”. “We strived to forge recommendations that will promote safety on campus in a way that complies with the law”.

The campus carry law, passed earlier this year, allows license holders to carry concealed handguns onto public university campuses.

December 10-Despite widespread opposition on the University of Texas campus to guns in classrooms, a university panel on Thursday recommended against designating UT classrooms gun-free zones. “Classrooms affect 50,000 students”, Goode said. It is no longer a topic of debate on campus, and there has been one report of a problem: an accidental discharge at a university medical facility when a staff member took out her gun to show it to colleagues. Private universities are allowed to maintain their bans under the law, which lawmakers approved in May.

The university will uphold its current weapons policy and has chosen to opt out of Senate Bill 11, according to a statement from President Edward Burger released December 11.

The report also recommended prohibiting guns in areas where people receive counseling or medical care, the UT Elementary School on campus and places where disciplinary hearings may be conducted. The campus has been a hotbed for discussion on the contentious new law, which many faculty and students opposed to it.

Texas is among eight states with provisions allowing concealed weapons on public postsecondary campuses, along with Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Oregon, Utah and Wisconsin.

“College students aren’t the most responsible kids, some of the time”, John Covert, University of Texas Student.