It has become a truism that a great many college campus environments have become toxic to rights that were once celebrated and are specifically named in the Constitution…rights such as freedom of speech and the right to keep and bear arms. It used to be axiomatic that on a campus, people were able to argue about controversial ideas without being subjected to censorship. This was especially pushed hard by leftist groups in the 1960’s.
It was all a charade designed to gain power. Those efforts led to professors such as Karla Holloway, pictured above, who used her clout to convict the Duke LaCross players without a trial in 2006.
The Group of 88 was a term applied to 88 professors at Duke University who condemned the Duke’s lacrosse team for their alleged involvement in a rape that was later declared a hoax.
Karla F.C. Holloway, a professor of English and African-American Studies was the person who initially thought of placing the ad.[1]
Now that the “progressives” control college environments, many topics are taboo, and the ability to bear arms has been extinguished for decades.
In Texas, though, there’s a small ray of hope. The Texas legislature passed a statute that allows for a carefully vetted, small group of incredibly law-abiding students to carry arms on campus; but only if those arms are carefully hidden, so as not to offend the sensibilities of the local gun haters.
The policy, while considerably short of full recognition of the right to keep and bear arms, is having a small, positive, effect on the campus population. Some of the most vocal and least tolerant of the gun haters are choosing to stay away from the Austin campus. From mystatesman.com:
A University of Texas English professor says a law enabling Texans with state permits to carry concealed guns into classrooms has already caused prospective faculty, students and even speakers not to come to the Austin campus.
Lisa Moore said in an NPR interview aired Aug. 7, six days after the campus carry mandate took effect: “We already have concrete examples of faculty who have declined to apply for jobs here at the university or who, once offered jobs, have turned them down when they realized that this policy would go into effect, students changing their minds about coming to our graduate and undergraduate programs, and invited speakers declining to come when they realized that we couldn’t guarantee that they would give their talk in a gun-free space.”
The Austin campus has no shortage of gun haters. It suffers from an amazing surplus of those who are unwilling to allow people to exercise their Constitutional rights. Karla Holloway is the lecturer who refused to come to Austin because of the campus carry law. Austin is better off without her privileged, elitist voice, one that’s used to condemn the very society from which she’s so richly benefited.
In this case, the Texas campus carry law acts as a mild filter, adding an incentive for those with particular disdain for the Constitution to stay away. In the story cited, the fact checker was able to confirm only one speaker who wouldn’t come to Austin because of the new law, one prospective faculty member who decided to stay away, and one student who decided to cross Austin off his list of prospective schools.
It’s evidence, however anecdotal, that the law is having a positive effect.
Two faculty members had such high levels of gun hatred and disdain for the Constitution that they felt compelled to mention the new law affected their decision to leave Austin for employment elsewhere. Again, small, but positive numbers.
Austin is overflowing with boastful, intolerant “progressives” who actively dislike American culture and the American Constitution. The city and state would be far better off if these intolerant individuals stayed away.
I watched the takeover of public universities during the 1960’s, 70’s, and 80’s. It was done with with the intent of remaking America in the image that “progressives” desire, a centrally planned economy run by them, in which those who value the rule of law, freedom, and structures that limit government power, are voices to be silenced.
It was a mistake to allow our universities to be turned into indoctrination camps for intolerant liberal fascists. That a few have now been dissuaded from coming to the University of Texas at Austin is a positive side effect of starting to restore the Second Amendment in Texas.
©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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