By Sarabeth, for CollegeCandy.com
I've lived in Texas for most of my life, but one thing I will never understand is the gun-happy culture that is so prevalent here. My own sister got a gun as an anniversary present from her uncle-in-law. And now our state government wants to take this love of guns one step further and allow students and professors to carry concealed handguns on public university campuses.
Yeah, you read that right. Guns in school. Apparently Gov. Rick Perry thinks that guns are the new black. Excuse me but wasn't it just LAST SEMESTER that a student came onto my campus with a gun, opened fire, and eventually killed himself?
I can see why some would support this. Back in 1966 when Charles Whitman went to the UT Tower with a rifle and opened fire, he received return fire from not only the Austin police, but armed civilians as well. Some believe that with guns on campus, students would be protected if a shooter were to show up. But personally, I think this is way too preemptive viewpoint.
This is probably my over-thinking mind at work, but can you imagine a frat party where the guys are allowed to have their guns? Nothing about that says "good idea" to me. I'm an optimist; I like to believe that not everyone is out to kill me and my fellow students. Guns on campuses are completely unnecessary. I know I can't speak for every other Texas school out there, but I feel perfectly safe with UTPD doing their jobs. If trouble goes down, I know they'll take care of it and they'll keep me safe.
Even UT's president Bill Powers has spoken out against this bill. When the man in charge of one of the largest schools in the country thinks it's a bad idea, then it's probably. a. bad. idea. Hopefully the Texas Senate listens to him and doesn't allow this to happen. But if it does, at the very least, I can look forward to the fact that I'm graduating soon and won't have to be here when something inevitably goes wrong.
Follow CollegeCandy on Facebook.