Texas AG Seeks To Block ‘Frivolous’ Lawsuit Against Campus Carry Law

72-year-old Clif Drummond, who had been a witness of Whitman’s shooting spree, blasted the decision to enact the new campus carry law on the same day that the college was honoring victims of gun violence.

Texas’ campus-carry law has officially taken effect as of Monday, allowing gun owners with concealed handgun licenses to carry their firearms into public university buildings, classrooms and dorms in the state, the Associated Press reports.

Unlike their public counterparts, private colleges and universities in Texas had the choice of whether or not to opt into campus carry.

The 1966 killings were carried out by former Marine Charles Whitman, 25, who brought a cache of weapons to the university’s main tower in Austin to shoot more than 40 people.

The law was approved previous year, and went into effect Monday, making Texas the eighth state in the nation to allow campus carry. He remembered having avoided Whitman’s bullets by chance, taking a route across campus that avoided the open spaces where many were killed.

A student walks at the University of Texas campus in Austin, Texas, on June 23, 2016.

Student Government President Shane Smith said that he wishes lawmakers listened to more students before they allowed guns on campus.

Jason Moore and his sister Courtney Wilson place a flower in memory of their uncle Thomas Ray Karr at the 50th anniversary remembrance of the University of Texas tower shootings.

Community colleges are given until August 2017 to comply with this law.

Even with the new law, there are still a few areas on campus where weapons will be prohibited.

She says seven other states already have similar laws and points to the recent flurry of mass shootings as another reason to allow concealed guns.

Texas has allowed licensed concealed handguns in public since 1995 but had previously made college buildings off limits. Schools were allowed to set up gun-free zones on campus, such as in sports arenas and clinics, but universities were limited in the restrictions they could implement. “A university is a battleground of words and ideas, and not of weapons”.

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“It’s definitely concerning to know that in a lecture hall there could be dozens of guns in bags and I mean I know people have had accidents with guns discharging unintentionally”, said Taylor Turcott, a Texas A&M Student.

33-year-old Jacqueline Vickery, an assistant professor of the University of North Texas, has joined other teachers warning that the new law could infringe on their ability to teach.