Texas is considering allowing guns on college campuses

Two major gun bills got their first real test today, as a Senate committee heard testimony from more than 100 people on the wisdom of Senate Bill 11, which would allow holders of concealed handgun licenses to pack heat on college campuses, and Senate Bill 17, which would allow CHL holders to carry handguns openly in public. The bills passed out of the committee on a 7-2 vote, along party lines.

Many came to speak against campus carry, including a survivor of the Virginia Tech massacre, Colin Goddard, who asked legislators not to use the incident to justify the bill. And there were several survivors of the 1966 UT Tower shooting, including Ruth Heide Claire James, formerly Claire Wilson, who began her testimony with a jarring declaration: “I was the first one shot in the Whitman massacre.”

This is precisely why we need guns on campus. A massacre can only occur when one person has a gun and everyone else is unarmed. Where many people have guns, it is almost impossible for one person to kill nine or ten people. If these massacre victims want to be vulnerable to another attack, let them, but they have no right to prevent other students from defending themselves.

Do you know the only place where gun bans work? In public buildings. That's because in public buildings each person is searched before entering. Not the same on college campuses. A person mad enough to want to shoot people is certain to disregard an unenforceable gun ban, while law-abiding students would be helpless to defend themselves.

A letter from William McRaven, chancellor of the University of Texas, was read aloud, stressing that many mental health officials who work with college students are very uneasy about the prospect of more guns on campus: Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for college students, and easier access to guns on campus might make suicide even more common.

McRaven isn't an Edgar Allan Poe character, he's the Chancellor of the University of Texas. What he is saying, then, is because some students might choose to shoot themselves, all students should be disarmed and unable to defend themselves.

You know that cars can be used to run over people. Because mentally unstable people can run over others using cars, perhaps we should ban all cars. Cars, like guns, are tools, and have both good and bad uses. We accept that there will be bad uses because the overwhelming use of both is for the good.

Claire Wilson was 18 when the shooting happened, and pregnant. Whitman killed her unborn child and 18-year-old boyfriend. She lay bleeding in view of the Tower for some 90 minutes until she was rescued. Today, she said that gunfire from well-meaning civilians, causing confusion, was one of the reasons she wasn’t rescued earlier.

Sorry! Don't believe a word of it. A shooter is going to take longer to take down if no one else has a gun. If I were a shooting victim, I'd never want to be a sheep again. I'd always have a gun to defend myself.

People who are 18 are considered mature enough to vote, but not mature enough to have handguns on campus. This makes no sense. Either take away their right to vote, or let them have their guns.

The other bill being considered is one that would generally allow people to carry handguns in public. Again, not a problem. I think it's a great deterrent to muggers and armed robbers.

Pedro Gonzales is editor of Newsmachete.com, the conservative news site