TexasCHLforum.com

Senator Ogden,

I called and left a message with one of your Austin staffers yesterday to voice my strong displeasure with your comments about Senate Bill 354 to allow licensed Texans to carry concealed handguns on public university and college campuses. But I feel so strongly about this issue that I felt the need to write you as well.

I firmly believe that law-abiding citizens should be able to legally carry any reasonable means of self defense with them anywhere they go within this great state. College campuses should be no exception. My reason is simple: without a reasonable NEED to prohibit a law-abiding citizen's rights, the people should be free to exercise their rights.

But even someone who sees the carrying of weapons as privilege instead of a right, must surely understand the illogic of prohibiting this supposed privilege in certain areas but not others. A "gun-free zone" like a Texas college campus ONLY prevents law-abiding citizens from possessing a gun. Is it not obvious to you that someone who is willing to violate laws against harmful USE of a gun will have no problems also violating a law against POSSESSION of a gun in a place that is "gun free" in name only?

This is a contentious issue, and people who are against the idea of guns on campus have come up with a plethora of red herrings and other supposed reasons why guns should continue to be banned on campuses. But I've yet to hear any of them explain how preventing lawfully possessed guns on campus prevents any crime, other than hypothetical accidents and heat-of-the-moment crimes that so far have not occured with increased frequency elsewhere in our great state in the 16 years since the CHL law went into effect. At the heart of the anti-campus carry argument is the simple truth that many people are uncomfortable with the idea of average citizens possessing weapons. They get nervous thinking their classmate, student, teacher may have a gun hidden on them somewhere. Universities worry about liability and insurance rates. Some (but not all) campus police worry how they will discern a "real bad guy" from a CHL holder in a Virginia Tech-type of tragedy.

But these are simply unwarranted fears based on ignorance and prejudice. A person legally carrying a gun is LESS likely to spontaneously cause harm than someone who is illegally carrying a gun. Right now only people who are illegally carrying guns are on campus. Liability and insurance concerns can be addressed by the legislature. Police - in the rare instance of a mass shooting - can utilize advanced training they should all be receiving already.

None of these fears outweigh the very real fear of a college student or professor or simply someone visiting a campus becoming a helpless victim of violent crime. This issue is only tangentally about "campus safety" and preventing "another Virginia Tech". The real issue here is personal self defense. Why should I, or my daughter, or anyone's son, daughter, father, mother, husband, wife be forced into helplessness against criminals simply because they wish to enter a college building?

I'll leave you with one very powerful example of a Nevada college student named Amanda Collins. Feel free to Google her story for all the relevant details, but in brief - she was raped in a campus parking garage. The same person who raped her later raped two other women, killing one of them. Ms. Collins has a concealed handgun license in her state but was prohibited from carrying her self-defense weapon on campus. Thus she was defenseless. She could have stopped this rapist with her gun, preventing herself and two other young women and their families from needless suffering. But the law forced her to be a victim simply because she was a student.

Senator Ogden, I have been your constituent for a number of years - first in the Bryan-College Station area then later returning to your district a few years ago when I moved with my family to the Cedar Park area. I have always voted for you, believing you to be a reasonable conservative voice who would do what is right for Texans.

But sir, this issue means A LOT to me. And your continued failure to expand the rights of licensed, law-abiding Texans to defend themselves in all parts of our great state (including employer parking lots) will regretably force me to withdraw my support for you come the next election.

I sincerely hope you will change your mind on this issue, vote your conscience, and vote FOR the rights of all Texans to defend themselves from violent crime.

Thank you for your time.