On August 1, 2016 the Campus Carry Law will go into effect, which allows licensed concealed handgun holders to carry their guns at any and all public universities in the state of Texas. In a statement written by Gregory Fenves, the 29th President of The University of Texas, he regrettably said "under the law, I cannot adopt a policy that has the general effect of excluding licensed concealed handguns from campus."
President Fenves - appointed to the position on June 3rd of last year - is one of the hundreds of educators against Senate Bill 11. "I do not believe handguns belong on a university campus, so this decision has been the greatest challenge of my presidency to date," Fenves wrote. "I empathize with the many faculty members, staffers, students and parents of students who signed petitions, sent emails and letters, and organized to ban guns from campus and especially classrooms. As a professor, I understand the deep concerns raised by so many. However, as president, I have an obligation to uphold the law."
Once the law is implemented at the University students and faculty will not be allowed to carry their guns in the UT's sports facilities, on-campus residence halls, science labs, businesses that sell alcohol and their School of Law's courtroom amongst others. Areas in particular that raised extreme concern were those designated for pre-K-12 school-sponsored activities, which was listed as a gun-exclusion zone in UT's Campus Carry Working Group's Policies and Implementation Strategies report.
Oddly enough, the law will go into effect on the 50th anniversary of the UT shooting that occurred in 1966. On that day, Charles Whitman gunned down 14 people and injured 32 others from UT's main building tower, making him one of the first mass murderers to open fire on a college campus in the United States.
Source: ABC13
