Republished with permission from gunfreeut.org:
1. Campus Carry won’t have much impact because CHL holders must be over 21 and few such students live on campus. WRONG:
- Over 5000 people within a 5 mile radius of UT-Austin’s campus have CHLs
- Reciprocal laws will allow thousands more people with licenses from other states to enter our place of work and learning and our students’ on-campus homes.
2. Campus Carry will allow people to protect themselves from criminals. WRONG:
- Guns prove to be no more effective at protecting people from crime than other weapons and less effective than running and hiding or calling the police.
3. Gun Free zones attract criminals with guns. WRONG:
- Mass shootings on & around college campuses are horrific and scary, but they are rare.
- College campuses are among the safest places in Texas and the US.
- Mass shooters do not choose their targets because they are in Gun Free zones
4. Good Guys with guns can stop Bad Guys with guns. WRONG:
- The FBI found only 1 of 160 active shooter incidents between 2000-2014 was stopped by a CHL holder, and he was a Marine; 21 incidents were stopped by UNARMED civilians
- In several cases when CHL holders have attempted to intervene, they have been killed, injured, or nearly shot the wrong person.
- Security experts with extensive training don’t trust CHL holders to be effective in a crisis
- Simulations prove the security experts’ point.
5. Women with guns can better protect themselves against sexual violence. WRONG:
- A study of FBI and Clery Act data shows that sexual violence has increased on campuses where Concealed Carry has been implemented
- Most campus sexual assault occurs between acquaintances, where the victim would be unlikely to use a gun
- Allowing guns on campus will arm the perpetrators of sexual violence
6. Trust CHL holders: they are law-abiding citizens. HOW DO WE KNOW?
- The NRA has blocked the study of crime rates by CHL holders and other gun-violence related claims.
- Information on arrests of concealed carriers is shielded by law in most states.
- Conviction rates are unreliable, because CHL holders tend to escape prosecution
7. Perceptions.
- Some people feel safer with guns. That feeling of safety is based on false information.
- Many people in our community –students, staff, and faculty — feel threatened by Campus Carry.
- devaluing of African American life in the US makes many people in UT Austin’s Black community feel especially threatened.
- The majority of the UT Austin community opposes Campus Carry.
- This law is being imposed on us by legislators using faulty arguments in order to disrupt our community, our students’ homes, our work places and our university way of life.
SB11 supposedly gives college presidents the ability to decide where guns are allowed.
President Fenves should protect all of us by making all campus buildings off limits and the legislature should respect that decision.
Sources
Evan Defilippis and Devin Hughes, “Gunfight or Flee: New Study Finds No Advantages to Using a Firearm in Self-Defense Situations,” The Trace, July 14, 2015
Evan Defilippis and Devin Hughes, “Gun-Rights Advocates Say Places That Ban Guns Attract Mass Shooters. The Data Says They’re Wrong,” The Trace, June 18, 2015
Blair, J. Pete, and Schweit, Katherine W. (2014). A Study of Active Shooter Incidents, 2000 – 2013. Texas State University and Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington D.C. 2014.
Andrew Blankstein, Tracy Connor, John Boxley, “Two Cops, Three Others Killed in Las Vegas Shooting Spree,” NBC News, June 10, 2014
Mike Carter, Emily Heffter, Julia Sommerfield, “Man Arrested in Tacoma Mall Shooting,” The Seattle Times, November 20, 2005.
Timothy Egan, “Myth of the Hero Gunslinger,” The New York Times, January 20, 2011
“Gun Carriers Fail At Self-Defense In Independent Study at Police Training Facility,” July 22, 2015, PRNewswire-USNewswire
The Campaign to Keep Guns off Campus’ new study shows that on-campus crime rates have increased in two states where concealed carry on campus is allowed,” March 17, 2015,
Walter Hickey, “How the NRA killed Federal Funding for Gun Violence Research,” Business Insider, January 16, 2013.
Bill Lueders,”State weapons law conceals information: Anti-disclosure rules shield identities of felons, abusers and fugitives,” WisconsinWatch.org, March 10, 2013
Amanda Gailey, “Why Americans Don’t Treat Fatal Gun Negligence as a Crime,” The New Republic, April 26, 2015
Matt Valentine, “The Myth of a Good Guy with a Gun,” Politico Magazine, October 5, 2015
Gabrielle Canon, “Study: People Are Quicker to Shoot a Black Target Than a White Target: Shooter bias increases in states with lax gun laws,” Mother Jones, September 1, 2015.
Warfield Center for African and African American Studies, “Statement on Pending Campus Carry Law,” GunFreeUT.org, October 26, 2015.
Matt Valentine, “Texas Just Made College Less Safe,” Politico Magazine, June 1, 2015
Lauren McGaughy, “Regents, Legislature Have Final Say Over Campus Carry,” Houston Chronicle, October 26, 2015.