1.  Campus Carry won’t have much impact because CHL holders must be over 21 and few such students live on campus. WRONG:

• Over 5000 people within a 5 mile radius of UT-Austin’s campus have CHLs.
• Tens of thousands of visitors come to UT every semester. 
• The UT community is not just undergraduates, but also includes graduate students, faculty, administrators and staff–most of whom are over 21.
• Texas recognizes licenses from other states, some of which have minimum ages of 18 or 19. Those licensed carriers are supposed to obey Texas law (including age restrictions) while in Texas, but many have had no training whatsoever and do not know Texas law. Alabama, for example, issues concealed carry licenses to people as young as 18, and has no training requirement at all.
• There are classrooms, offices, meeting rooms, and other public spaces in some UT dorms, such as Jester and Carothers, where non-residents can come and go during business hours.

2.  Campus Carry will allow people to protect themselves from criminals. WRONG:

• Guns prove to be no more effective at protecting people from crime than other weapons and less effective than running and hiding or calling the police.
• FBI data shows that the single leading cause of gun homicide is not from ‘criminals’ but from arguments that get out of hand.
• Civilians with guns make it harder for qualified law enforcement to do their job in active shooter incidents, because they cannot distinguish the shooter from the CHL holders.

3. Gun Free zones attract criminals with guns. WRONG:

• Mass shootings on and around college campuses are horrific and scary, but they are rare.
• Most college campuses are gun-free and they are among the safest places in Texas and the US.
• Mass shooters do not choose their targets because they are in Gun Free zones.

4.  Good Guys with guns can stop Bad Guys with guns. WRONG:

• The FBI found only 1 of 160 active shooter incidents between 2000-2013 was stopped by a civilian with a concealed carry permit (who was neither a member of law enforcement nor a security guard); 21 incidents were stopped by UNARMED civilians.
• In several cases when CHL holders have attempted to intervene, they have been killed, injured, or nearly shot the wrong person.
• Security experts with extensive training don’t trust CHL holders to be effective in a crisis
• Simulations prove the security experts’ point.

5.  Women with guns can better protect themselves against sexual violence. WRONG:

• A study of FBI and Clery Act data shows that sexual violence has not decreased on campuses where Concealed Carry has been implemented.
• Most campus sexual assault occurs between acquaintances, where the victim would be unlikely to use a gun.

6.  Trust CHL holders: they are law-abiding citizens. 

• Conviction rates are unreliable, because negligent shootings by presumptive “good guys” often go unprosecuted.

SB11 directs college presidents to determine a “reasonable” policy for where guns are allowed.   We call upon UT President Fenves to declare all campus buildings off limits to guns, and we call upon the legislature to respect that decision.

Sources 

Evan Defilippis and Devin Hughes, “Gunfight or Flee: New Study Finds No Advantages to Using a Firearm in Self-Defense Situations,” The Trace, July 14, 2015

Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Murder Circumstances by Weapon,” Expanded Homicide Data Table 11, Crime in the United States 2013

Myra Arthur, “ALERRT Center Warns CHL Holders Ahead of Campus Carry Law” ABC/KSAT News 12

Evan Defilippis and Devin Hughes, “Gun-Rights Advocates Say Places That Ban Guns Attract Mass Shooters. The Data Says They’re Wrong,” The Trace, June 18, 2015

Blair, J. Pete, and Schweit, Katherine W. (2014). A Study of Active Shooter Incidents, 2000 – 2013. Texas State University and Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington D.C. 2014.

Andrew Blankstein, Tracy Connor, John Boxley, “Two Cops, Three Others Killed in Las Vegas Shooting Spree,” NBC News, June 10, 2014

Mike Carter, Emily Heffter, Julia Sommerfield, “Man Arrested in Tacoma Mall Shooting,” The Seattle Times, November 20, 2005.

Timothy Egan, “Myth of the Hero Gunslinger,” The New York Times, January 20, 2011

“Gun Carriers Fail At Self-Defense In Independent Study at Police Training Facility,” July 22, 2015, PRNewswire-USNewswire

The Campaign to Keep Guns off Campus’ new study shows that on-campus crime rates have increased in two states where concealed carry on campus is allowed,” March 17, 2015,

Walter Hickey, “How the NRA killed Federal Funding for Gun Violence Research,” Business Insider, January 16, 2013.

Bill Lueders,”State weapons law conceals information: Anti-disclosure rules shield identities of felons, abusers and fugitives,” WisconsinWatch.org, March 10, 2013

Amanda Gailey, “Why Americans Don’t Treat Fatal Gun Negligence as a Crime,” The New Republic, April 26, 2015

Matt Valentine, “The Myth of a Good Guy with a Gun,” Politico Magazine, October 5, 2015

Gabrielle Canon, “Study: People Are Quicker to Shoot a Black Target Than a White Target: Shooter bias increases in states with lax gun laws,” Mother Jones, September 1, 2015.

Warfield Center for African and African American Studies, “Statement on Pending Campus Carry Law,” GunFreeUT.org, October 26, 2015.

Matt Valentine, “Texas Just Made College Less Safe,” Politico Magazine, June 1, 2015

Lauren McGaughy, “Regents, Legislature Have Final Say Over Campus Carry,” Houston Chronicle, October 26, 2015.

Photo:  “Main Building at The University of Texas at Austin“. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons.