TexasCHLforum.com

seamusTX wrote:Several women have confided to me that they carried illegally before CHLs were available in Texas; and because it was illegal anyway, they carried everywhere.

I have no way of knowing how widespread the practice was.

- Jim

This probably is not a fair characterization, but I doubt that they would have been prosecuted by a Texas Grand Jury back in the day if they were outed.

seamusTX wrote:The figures that you quoted appear to have come from this site:

http://www.utdallas.edu/ospa/stats/Spri ... allas.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If the average age of all students is 27.17 and the standard deviation is 7.94, that means that about 2/3 of the students are between 19 and 35. Few are younger, of course.

If you look at the demographics of licenses issue in 2008, about 10% are issued to people under 35 (I'm too lazy to do the precise calculation).

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/administra ... Issued.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We could argue all day about whether the college demographic would have "few" or "some" or "not many" armed CHL holders. I'm confident that there would be fewer than you find at a meeting of the rod and gun club. That's why psychopaths rarely if ever shoot up rod and gun clubs or police conventions.

If you look at mass murders that occur at places other than "gun-free zones," places where it is legal to carry and the age distribution is the same as the general population, they are rarely stopped by non-LEOs.

That's why I think it's futile to speculate about mass murders.

The rights of the individual student or school employee who chooses to arm himself or herself for personal self-protection are the issue here, IMHO.

And while I'm on the soapbox, college-age women are frequently the targets of rapists, robbers, and jilted "boyfriends." They need to protect themselves more than adult men do.

- Jim

As mentioned before by another poster, it really is the individual at a college campus that a CHL is trying to protect, not the potential mass-shooting victims.

The potential beneficial side-effect of that CHL defending themselves is that it has the potential to prevent additional carnage.

When I was attending UH-D at the tender age of 42 one of my classmates was a young petite-blonde with a nice country-accent. We had a tendency to hang out together and discuss issues over lunch and study-sessions. One day she was explaining how dangerous it was to attend school downtown, reached into her purse and pulled out a massive revolver (just enough for me to see it inside) and told me that she could take care of herself. Of course back then I didn't have the faintest idea what a CHL was or what the law was concerning handguns, but I was impressed.
At the time I was fairly new to the state, so I attributed it to living in Texas and didn't dwell on it.

seamusTX wrote:I'm going to play the devil's advocate here.

Many people in this forum have pointed out that discussing mass murders on campus is not an effective argument. Though horrendous, mass murders are stastically rare. Furthermore, with only about 2% of the adult population having a CHL, and most of those past the average college age, it is unlikely that an armed CHL holder would be present at an attempted mass murder.

For every mass murder, there are hundreds of rapes, robberies, and assaults on college campuses or on people traveling to or from these "gun free" zones. Students and school staff members deserve the right to defend themselves as they see fit from those threats.

However, to someone who has not looked at this issue rationally (including most legislators) that argument sounds selfish.

There's nothing fundamentally wrong with looking out for your self-interest first, but it has a bad reputation.

- Jim

Classification Average Age Standard Deviation Age Minimum Age Maximum Age
FR 19.69 2.00 17 44
SO 21.44 3.31 18 54
JR 24.59 5.80 18 64
SR 26.84 6.88 18 72
PB UG 31.57 7.81 21 63
PB GR 33.79 10.00 22 72
M 29.91 7.65 17 89
D 35.88 9.14 23 71
AUD 26.31 2.71 22 34
ALL 27.17 7.94 17 89

I firmly dispute the notion that older folks do not make up a significant portion of a college/university population.

The figures above come from the University of Texas - Dallas, and look remarkably similar to others done during a cursory "Google" search.