Texas House committee OK's bill to allow guns on college campuses
UPDATE: This story reflects the correction of an error which incorrectly attributed the first quote to Rep. Armando Walle, D - Houston.
Talk of border violence made an early cameo during a Texas House of Representatives committee hearing Wednesday before its members approved a bill to expand concealed handgun rights on college campuses.
By a vote of 5-to-3, the House Homeland Security and Public Safety committee approved House Bill 750, which would allow concealed firearms into most college buildings.
Early in the hearing, one representative questioned the safety of border colleges like the University of Texas-Pan American and the University of Texas at El Paso.
Both of those institutions’ presidents have voiced strong opposition to legislation like HB 750.
“They are in a much more dangerous situation than most other (schools) in the rest of the state,” the lawmaker said.
In fact, self-defense might be something worth encouraging along the border, he added.
And a Rio Grande Valley teacher, the first member of the public to testify before the committee, agreed with him.
Noe Garza told lawmakers that he deserves the right to defend himself as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas-Brownsville/Texas Southmost College.
“Being right on the Rio Grande River, we’ve had a lot of spillover violence” from Brownsville’s sister city, Matamoros, Garza said.
He cited two incidents since 2009 when university officials put the campus on alert when gunmen or shootings across the border could have posed a threat to students and faculty.
“Thankfully nothing happened on campus (but) I find it hard to believe that we are the only ones who have (dangerous) situations in Texas,” Garza said. “Think of the bigger picture here.”
More than five hours of testimony followed Garza’s, as dozens of students, professors and experts offered often emotional support for both sides of the debate.
At the start of the hearing, Rep. Joe Driver, R–Garland, who authored HB 750 and sits on the homeland security committee, asked his colleagues to trust citizens with a concealed handgun license, or CHL, rather than fearing worst case scenarios and student outbursts.
“There are 400,000 CHLs in the state of Texas. There have been no incidents … of misuse, accidental shooting, anything like that,” Driver said. “We are not talking about every student getting a gun. We are talking about a miniscule number who would qualify.”
With the exception of military service members and veterans, no one under the age of 21 can apply for a CHL and must pass a training course and in-depth background check. And only 7 percent of CHLs went to applicants between the ages of 21 and 25, Driver said.
Ultimately, his bill’s success is all but certain.
More than 80 of 150 representatives have already signed on as co-authors of HB 750, and the Senate is expected to easily approve it after passing a similar bill in 2009.
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Neal Morton covers education and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4472.
