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March for Gun-Free Campuses, January 8

MLA v.2


MARCH FOR GUN-FREE CAMPUSES

DATE: Friday, January 8, 2016
PLACE:  1:30pm Gather in Griffin Hall on the 2nd floor of the JW Marriott, 110 E. 2nd Street
1:45pm March from JW Marriott to Capitol Steps South
3:00pm Book Building and Rally on Capitol Steps South

PURPOSE: Send a message to the Texas State Legislature and UT Administration: Keep guns out of our campuses. All who oppose the carrying of guns in campus buildings are  welcome.

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Download Flyer
Contact the organizers

Support Gun Free UT! Buy a T-Shirt to Wear To the March!


BACKGROUND

In June 2015, the Texas state legislature passed Senate Bill 11, which threatens to force public colleges and universities in Texas to allow concealed handguns in campus buildings. The UT Campus Carry Working Group, which was charged with making policy recommendations to UT-Austin President Fenves, has concluded that under S. B. 11, UT must allow concealed handguns in the classroom. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has publicized his opinion that under S. B. 11 it will be illegal to ban handguns from student dorms.

Texas colleges and universities overwhelmingly oppose this law. Private colleges and universities are allowed to ‘opt out’ of S.B. 11, and most have. Over 1500 UT faculty and over 1800 UT graduate students have signed petitions against allowing guns in classrooms. UT’s Campus Carry Working Group state in their own report that not one of their members thinks guns should be allowed in college classrooms.

Nationwide, academic institutions and organizations agree. On November 30, the Modern Language Association (MLA)–the primary professional organization for American college and university faculty who teach modern languages & literatures–joined 28 other American scholarly societies in a public statement opposing campus carry laws on the grounds that they pose a threat to freedom of expression and to campus safety.

The Modern Language Association holds its annual convention in Austin from January 7-10, 2016. Gun-Free UT, with the co-sponsorship of the MLA, has organized the March Against Gun-Free Campuses in conjunction with the convention. Before UT-Austin President Fenves acts on the Campus Carry Working Group’s recommendations, and before S. B. 11 takes effect on August 1, 2016, we invite all MLA convention attendees, all those who work and study in Texas’s colleges and universities, and all concerned citizens to come together to defend the public’s right to a gun-free university.

DETAILS

All who believe that guns do not belong on college and university campuses are welcome to participate in the March for Gun-Free Campuses. You need not be affiliated with a university or a member of MLA.

Participants will gather at 1:30pm on Friday, January 8, 2016 in Griffin Hall on the second floor of the JW Marriott (110 E. 2nd street, Austin TX), where the president of the Modern Language Association, Professor Roland Greene of Stanford University, will speak about campus carry from a national perspective. At 1:45, we will leave the Marriott and parade down Congress Avenue carrying books. When we reach the Capitol steps, we will use these books to build a symbolic gun exclusion zone. If you have a spare book that you would like to use to build the zone, please bring it with you. Make sure it is a book you can afford to lose. Given our limited time at the Capitol, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to reunite all the books used to build the Zone with their individual owners.

From inside the zone, speakers will read from texts that they have discussed in a classroom, and speak about why these texts must be taught in a gun-free environment.

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT

Click this link to pre-order a Gun-Free UT T-shirt, which can be picked up at Griffin Hall prior to the march. “No Campus Carry” buttons will be available for free at the MLA convention and in Griffin Hall. We invite participants in the March for Gun-Free Campuses to wear orange (the color adopted by Everytown For Gun Safety and Moms Demand Gun Sense in America), or one of the orange armbands available in Griffin Hall.

If you would like to get involved with the march, or if you have questions about it, please contact the organizers at marchforgunfreecampuses@gmail.com .

Dec. 13 — Austin Wear Orange Walk – Newtown Remembrance

December 13, 2015
3 PM
Texas State Capitol South Steps

Join supporters of Moms Demand Action, Texas Gun Sense, and Gun-Free UT for a Wear Orange Walk. We will walk from the South Steps of the Capitol down Congress to commemorate the third anniversary of the Sandy Hook tragedy and honor all victims and survivors of gun violence. Speeches by local gun violence survivors and community leaders to follow.

Together, we acknowledge that one of the best ways we can honor the victims and survivors of gun violence is to keep moving forward, keep making progress, keep being visible, and never give up.

Don’t forget to wear orange – the color of the gun violence prevention movement!

Everytown Event page
Facebook Event page

Remarks from a Gun-Free UT Rally

MiaMia Carter, Department of English

The passing of Senate Bill 11 was a victory for the NRA and gun lobby, primarily; it only further disseminates the belief that we should live in fear, should live in fear of each other, that danger is omnipresent and that our fears legitimize the presence of guns absolutely everywhere in U.S. society. It’s a perfect self-fulfilling prophecy and a calculating marketing policy: fear begets fear; fear sells guns. A violent mass-shooting incident generates more fear, and the advertisers of the “more guns will protect you and the ones you love” myth–for it is a myth–and its sincerely frightened true-believers, advocate for the further expansion of gun culture. None of the available research supports the argument that more guns equals more safety and protection; more guns have been proven to lead to an increase in accidents, deaths, suicides, acts of rape and domestic violence, and injury of individuals and their loved ones.

Why do our national political leaders keep outlawing funding for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) collection of statistical information about gun incidents in this country? Because facts and statistical information could be used to make policy changes, because the damage caused by the abundance of guns in our country would be made vivid, made visible in ways that resonate far, far beyond the spectacular horrors of these truly terrible and horrific mass shootings. All of the weekly, hourly, daily little gun-related tragedies would also be visible.

Professors and graduate instructors, counselors and student advisors deal with conflict regularly. Conflict over grades and comments on papers, over content in classes, over curriculum requirements and graduation eligibility; it is habitual. Teachers also sometimes have to mediate conflicts between students–and we see a lot of student depression, anxiety, personal crisis, and suicidal thinking. With Senate Bill 11, the abundant possibilities for violently ramping-up these kinds of encounters become truly terrifying.

The most tragic thing about the bill is that public colleges and universities are one of the most important institutions in our shared cultural life and one of the very few places left in the United States where people are encouraged to think critically together, to take risks, to engage productively in dialogue and debate. Challenging each other and our own cherished beliefs and values is a fundamental part of education; being exposed to a diversity of opinions and beliefs encourages growth and refined thinking. There is a kind healthy dynamism in intellectual reflection, and rational and thoughtful conflict is part of that. A gun in the room would destroy altogether that scholarly safe space of exploration, self-discovery, interchange, debate, and healthy exposure to dissenting points of view. Our rich and ever-evolving university community, and the very notion of community in this country is under attack. Our administrators and the citizens of Texas should make our elected officials address the abundant research that is readily available to them and urge them to state their rationale to the citizens of Texas and the world: why MUST we have guns in our classroom? We are a fact-based community. Address the research and explain, please

According to the Houston Chronicle’s reporter Lauren McGaughy (“UT Faculty Lawyers up ahead of campus carry deadline” 11/09/15), Open Carry Texas head and state senate candidate CJ Grisham had a message for UT faculty opposed to campus carry: just quit: “Quit your jobs and walk away,” he reportedly wrote on his group’s Facebook page.

We are here today to say we will not quit; we will not let our serious professional and public health concerns silence us or enfold us in the delusional worldview of the more guns means more safety crowd. We are afraid, and highly distressed, but we are going to fight like hell. We will lawyer-up; we will act-out and cock-up; we will fight-on and speak-up; we will, like the mighty football players did at the University of Missouri, stand together strongly, knowing that our fight is for the common good, and for a healthy, safe, and vibrant University of Texas.

Rally Tuesday November 10th

We had a great turn-out. You can read all about it in the Media Coverage section of this website.

Mia Carter’s speech is published here.

Pictures coming soon


 

Tuesday, November 10, noon-1
The Free Speech Area at West Mall, UT Campus

Here’s hoping to see a HUGE turn-out tomorrow on West Mall. The  Free Speech area is right next to the  side of the Tower that faces Guadalupe at UT.

We’ve got a sweet line up of students speaking, including the sister of one of the Newton kids who died at Sandy Hook Elementary.
Wear your ORANGE Gun-Free UT t-shirt if you got one, if you don’t you can get one there $10, $6 for students

It’s time to pushback against gun violence!

The eyes of the world are on Texas — Let’s show them UT students, staff, parents and faculty say NO to guns on campus!

Facebook Event for the Rally

Remarks from Gun Free UT Rally

This originally appeared at http://www.susanschorn.com/?p=1623
Posted on

Gun-Free UT rally

Today I spoke at a campus rally against the implementation of a state law that will allow concealed carry of firearms on public college campuses throughout Texas. For an hour, informed, compassionate, articulate staff and faculty at UT spoke out about the many ways this law will endanger the campus community. I was particularly struck by the words of Matt Valentine, a fellow staff member here at UT, who told us something remarkable about the Founding Fathers’ interpretation of the Second Amendment as it pertains to college campuses:

The University of Virginia Board of Visitors took up the issue of campus carry in 1824, and didn’t have to look far for an originalist perspective—Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were in attendance. The board resolved that “No Student shall, within the precincts of the University … keep or use weapons or arms of any kind, or gunpowder.”

Tragically, while our rally was in progress, a mass shooting was taking place on the campus of Umpqua Community College in Roseberg, Oregon. Initial reports indicate ten people have died and another 20 are wounded.

Here’s a rough transcript of my remarks: Continue reading Remarks from Gun Free UT Rally