Reader JT writes:
There was a town hall meeting today at the University of North Texas, Discovery Park campus (location of the College of Engineering and Computer Science) over the topic of campus carry. It’s meant to allow students and faculty to have input before the Campus Carry Taskforce makes its decision on what rules and restrictions they will have in place. It is the second of seven townhall meetings that are planned. I didn’t even know about the first that happened on the main campus, but I was tipped off by a fellow pro-gun student who knows me that it was taking place today . . .
He mentioned that the main campus townhall was lively, and most of the people were ignorant of the fact that campus carry is already on the books, that it’s not a proposal, it’s already law. Anyway, I attended this meeting not knowing what to expect, but I prepared for the possibility of having a vigorous debate. As you can see in the crappy picture I provided (sorry, I broke my main cell a couple days ago), TTAG was not without representation at that meeting.
I was pleasantly surprised, however, by how the meeting went. The speaker was the dean of the criminal justice department, and he was VERY impartial, and made it very clear in his presentation what the law expects of CHL holders, and provided statistics on just how law abiding they are. In addition, he said that they want to be sure that any restrictions they put in place are for a very good reason, and do not violate the spirit of the law, or impede students and faculty from using their right. I give him high marks.
All-in-all, there were about nine students that attended, all pro-Second Amendment (one was kind of Fudd-ish), about 15+ faculty members, 2 Denton/UNT PD officers, and a local news station (local CBS news through a subcontractor). Only one faculty member was openly, and outspokenly anti-gun. Another faculty member/professor, was outspokenly pro-campus carry, and he had all of us exchanging looks with big smiles. I’ve got his name here, and I’d like to nominate him as today’s Gun Hero: Jeff M. Allen, Ph.D. Professor, Director of the College of Information, Department of Learning Technologies, and boy was he informed/prepared.
I’m no stenographer, but I typed up notes from the meeting as it was going (on a laptop w/ a large SIG SAUER logo on the back). I’ve got to go through my notes and clean it up before I feel comfortable sharing. The news guy interviewed me and another (pro-gun) student. I think he said it was on a local CBS-news segment called FixNews, or something like that… I was kind of rushed. I’ve never heard of them before, but I gave a statement and the camera man seemed to like everything I was saying.
Anyway, I’ll stay in touch.