CONTINUING COVERAGE: TEXAS SCHOOL SAFETY
Connecticut school massacre could drive through Texas’ gun-law revisions
Measures allowing teachers to pack pistols, concealed weapons in college buildings, open-carry expected for debate
By Mike Ward
American-Statesman Staff
In Texas, where Gov. Rick Perry has become a national poster child for Second Amendment rights, the tragic massacre at a Connecticut school last week promises to energize efforts to bolster school safety, including a long-debated proposal to allow concealed weapons in college buildings, lawmakers predicted Tuesday.
“There’s very serious concern right now about the safety of our schools, and I think we’ll have a very serious discussion about how to improve it, as we should,” said veteran state Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, which approved the campus-carry bill two years ago — although it later failed to pass into state law.
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“You should be able to carry your handgun anywhere in this state,” Perry said at a tea party event in North Richland Hills. He qualified that statement by saying the decision should be local and that private property should continue to be allowed to impose their own restrictions.
In recent weeks, before the Connecticut shooting, House and Senate members were discussing a variety of gun bills — including the campus-carry measure, allowing handgun licensees to carry their guns into private parking lots at plants and job sites, even a proposal to allow the open-carrying of firearms. Most are still in the discussion stage, though legislation is expected to be filed soon on all those measures.
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