Cobra Medic wrote:Charles L. Cotton wrote:Cobra Medic wrote: You want it to be different. I want schools treated the same as hospitals and shopping malls.
We want schools to be treated differently than hospitals and shopping malls. "We" being a large majority of the Texas House and Senate, the majority of gun owners I've spoken with, the NRA, TSRA, TFC. You're the only person I've seen that didn't want protection for the students and employees.
Chas.
I spoke with a lot of coworkers during the past week and
WE want schools treated the same as hospitals and shopping malls. We want equal protection under the law instead of special treatment for special interest groups. Thanks to the conversations you inspired, several said they will contact their legislators and make
their desires clear. Some of my coworkers are also NRA and/or TSRA members and none of us remembers being asked what
we want as legislative priorities. Some may even mention that lwhen they contact their legislators.
You snide remark is just silly because I do want "protection for the students and employees" but I want the same protection for doctors and nurses and medtechs and patients at hospitals, and I want the same protection for shoppers and retail clerks, and factory workers, and waiters and waitresses and diners, and everyone who can legally have a firearm. What I oppose is a law that gives special treatment for students and employees but denies equal protection under the law to the rest of us.
I wasn't a snide remark at all and I think you know it. Your first post indicated that you only want carrying on campus decriminalized without any protection afforded to employees and students in terms of not being fired or expelled. Your argument was that it would put schools on the same footing as other businesses. I correctly pointed out that the campus carry bills were not written that way because those who support campus-carry want the additional protection.
You need to do some research on "equal protection under the law" before you start throwing that phrase around. It has absolutely nothing to do with this topic or the pending bills. Different business entities, industries, and people are treated differently in many aspects and doing so does not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Without protection for employees and students, a campus-carry bill would be all show and no substance. What you propose would keep people out of jail, but it wouldn't help them stay employed or in school. They would still be faced with the choice of being able to defend themselves, or being able to get an education and/or feeding their families. You will correctly argue this is the situation many employees face now, but that is shortsighted for a number of reasons. First, we simply can't pass a bill that would allow every single employee to carry a gun inside their employer's buildings. (I suspect you would oppose that anyway.) Secondly, campuses are the focus of criminal activity that puts life at risk more so than any employer's property with very few exceptions. Criminals know students and university employees are unarmed; they have no such assurance with private employees.
You claim you do want "protection for students and employees" but that you want the same protection for everyone who can legally carry a gun. That sounds great, but when you get past the rhetoric it's a hollow claim, because you know we could never pass such a bill. Your "all or nothing" approach would leave us where we were in 1994 when we couldn't carry a defensive handgun anywhere, with very few exceptions. Nor would we have unlicensed car-carry.
Do you oppose the current campus-carry bills as they are filed?
I don't know if your reference to your co-workers was intended as a threat, but if so, you missed the mark. I'm not the least bit concerned that you will be able to derail the campus-carry bills.
Chas.