Texas State Students Weigh in on Campus Carry Law

By Annalise Hughes

On Monday afternoon, students of Texas State University were asked about their opinions on Campus Carry, and whether they felt the law would be beneficial or detrimental.

Texas Senate Bill 11 (SB11), also commonly known as “Campus Carry”, is the law enabling students to carry a concealed weapon on campus for safety purposes. Most of the students interviewed expressed their concerns with the allowance of guns on their college campus, feeling that this law may escalate violence rather than prevent it.

Carlos Flores
Photo by: Annalise Hughes

Carlos Flores, a 20-year-old English student opposes the law, saying that the excuse of needing weapons to protect ourselves is a poor argument. He mentioned how crimes in many European countries have gone down because of their laws on banning weapons.

“It would be completely unnecessary since we have UPD here," Flores said. "We already have people in charge in case something happens.” 

Alex Molina
Photo by: Logan Martin

Political science major, Alex Molina, 19, also stands in opposition. “If you want to go to a gun range, then that’s cool because that is a place where guns are welcome… not where we want to learn.” He thinks the law would be more of an invitation for people to bring guns on campus.

“This is a place of education, we don’t welcome guns here,” Molina said. “How am I to know that the person carrying a weapon is actually a student? Anyone could put a backpack on, come to campus and appear as a student.”

Rachel Brownlee
Photo by: Dylan Anguiano

Rachel Brownlee, 27, human nutrition major, also thinks it would be a bad idea for students to carry a gun while on campus. Many students are in a new situation for the first time and being put in a stressful situation can make people do crazy things, she said.

“College is a time when people kind of have a chance to make bad decisions and good decisions,” said Brownlee. “When you put lethal weapons in the mix, it just doesn’t seem like a good thing to bring to the table.”

Melanie Bush
Photo by: Erik Rodriguez

Melanie Bush, 23, shared her stance particularly from a woman’s point of view. The only part of campus carry she would support is mostly for women who are on campus late at night, she said.

“I’m hoping to see assaults on where men jump women go down,” Bush said. Having a late class herself, she says she can understand a situation where during an assault, having a gun would be necessary.

Computer science student Jesse Miara, 22, is for the law, partially, due to the fact that it is a constitutional right under the 2nd amendment.

Jesse Miara
Photo by: Clayton Kolavo

“I don’t think there is a need,” Miara said, “but I just feel that it’s a right that deserves to be exercised.” He believes the responses of students will be mixed, evenly divided.

Sharing a similar viewpoint was 20-year-old business marketing major, Michael Pearce. He said there are good and bad sides to campus carry.

Michael Pearce
Photo by: Cameron Goodall

“I’m against it because I feel like you’re not gonna ask everyone on campus, ‘hey do you have your license for that gun?’” Pearce said.

He said the reason he would be for it is because responsible citizens usually know how to carry weapons so it would be a good thing if there was someone like this who would be able to handle the situation if it were to ever get to that point.

Campus Carry is to go into effect at Texas State in the fall semester on August 1, 2016.