Running head: TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL FIGHTING THE BAN ON GUNS IN

SCHOOL
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Texas Schools and Guns

Author Note
This paper was prepared for ENGL-112
Commentary Final Draft Week #: 7

Texas Schools and Guns

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Texas Schools and Guns

Texas law has allowed citizens to carry a concealed handgun in public since 1995 by
licensed citizens, but had college buildings off limits. The law was recently changed and resulted
in allowing students who have a concealed handgun license to carry one in the classroom. This
has resulted in three professors at the University of Texas in Austin wanting to block the law
allowing them to carry guns in the classroom. The attorneys who represent the university had
written Any professor who attempts to establish such prohibition is subject to discipline (Ralph
Barrera/Austin American-Statesman via AP, 2016).
Mia Carter, Lisa Moore, and Jennifer Glass are all saying that the law is too vague and
needs to be put on hold so that they can hold a public trial to see if the campus carry law goes
against their constitutional rights to equal protection. The professors do have a right to be
worried about guns in classrooms, especially with all the news and reports of gun violence in the
past couple years. The professors asked the judge to halt the law for even a short period of time
were denied because this would let any university in Texas have an excuse to ban guns in the
classroom.
There are obvious reasons for people to want to both ban and allow guns inside the
classroom with the correct license. The people who want to ban guns inside the classroom are
afraid for themselves and others because there have been so many reported incidents at schools.
They can easily imagine that if there are more guns in the classroom that there would be a higher
chance of an incident happening than if they were banned inside the classroom.

Texas Schools and Guns

On the other side the people who wish to be able to legally carry a concealed handgun are
wanting to carry one incase an incident were to happen while they are in school. A concealed
handgun wouldnt do any good if they were allowed at a school but not a classroom because if
someone were to attack them they would most likely do it while they are in a classroom and not
being able to protect yourself properly can be frightening.
The professors who wish to ban guns inside the classroom have the better argument
mainly because if someone has a concealed handgun license doesnt mean they know how to
properly react in a bad situation. In fact if there was a shooting they would most likely not be
able to react in time to be able to do anything. Even if they were able to react in time if the local
law enforcement shows up and that person is still holding the gun in case there are multiple
shooters the police could automatically assume that he was one of the shooters resulting in either
wasting the polices time and lowering the chances of catching the other shooters or resulting in
the licensed gun owner being shot by mistake.
A great example was done by the Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Although this is a
comedy news show they had experts tell you why having a license to carry a concealed handgun
can create more problems than it can solve. First off you only need eight hours in order to get a
concealed hand gun license. On the show they tell you one of the easiest ways to obtain a
concealed hand gun license that is valid in 30 states. Jordan Klepper says that you do not even
need to live in Florida and that you can just mail in the application. The only requirements are to
buy a National Rifle Association stamp and to pass any NRA gun safety course. The course goes
over how to hold a gun, how to shoot the gun, and to take a written test that had multiple choice.
It only took him about eight hours to complete everything. ("Jordan Klepper: Good Guy with a
Gun Pt. 1-The Daily Show with Trevor Noah - Video Clip | Comedy Central", 2016)

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The expert from Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training, which has
trained over 80,000 cops to respond to active shooter events, tells Jordan that the training he
received is not sufficient enough to be able to respond to any emergency situation. To prove that
a single day of training isnt enough they put him into a couple different scenarios. The first
scenario they hand him a paintball gun, a man walks in while they are talking and shoots him
with a paintball gun. This alone shows that the license alone isnt sufficient enough, but they do a
few more to the same affect. They even have a scenario where he is in a hallway and civilian
pops out and he shoots them on accident while police show up and while he is trying to say he is
trying to help they end up shooting him as well since he was holding the gun which could easily
happen in real life. A great fact is that about one in five active shooter events are stopped by a
potential victim who most of the time are unarmed ("Jordan Klepper: Good Guy with a Gun pt.
2-The Daily Show with Trevor Noah - Video Clip | Comedy Central", 2016).
In the FBI study about active shooters from 2000 to 2013 they state that More than half
of the incidents-90 shootings- ended on the shooters initiative, while 21 incidents ended after
unarmed citizens successfully restrained the shooter. And in 21 of the 45 incidents where law
enforcement had to engage the shooter to end the threat, nine officers were killed and 28 were
wounded. ("FBI Releases Study on Active Shooter Incidents", 2016) This shows that even if
you have sufficient training there almost half the time you are going to become injured or killed,
so if you only have eight hours of training the chances are going to be a lot higher for you to be
injured or killed.
Another major finding from their active shooter incidents study is where the shootings
were taking place. The largest percentage of incidents-45.6 percent-took place in a commercial
environment (73 incidents), followed by 24.3 percent that took place in an educational

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environment (39 incidents). The remaining incidents occurred at the other location types
specified in the study-open spaces, military and other government properties, residential
properties, houses of worship, and health care facilities. ("FBI Releases Study on Active
Shooter Incidents", 2016)
Going back to the experts from ALERRT with Jordan they said that there are some cases
where a civilian who had a gun who stopped the incident, but it was about three percent.
("Jordan Klepper: Good Guy with a Gun pt. 2-The Daily Show with Trevor Noah - Video Clip |
Comedy Central", 2016) With these statistics and research from the FBI it shows that the law
allowing guns to be in schools should be removed or altered.
Both sides have valid points but there could be a good compromise to satisfy both sides.
They both want to feel safe and secure while in school and they should feel that way. So one of
two good alternatives would be to hire professionals who know how to properly use a gun and
properly react when something terrible like a school shooting occurs. This would make the
students and faculty feel safer knowing that there is a trained professional there incase anything
does happen. A different alternative would be to have a required minimum amount of training
with a concealed handgun along with three hundred or more hours of training in reacting to
situations where they need to use a gun. Overall people should be able to feel safe at all times,
especially while in school.
No one wants to be in a situation where they need to use a handgun so whether the law to
be allowed to carry a gun inside a classroom is removed or changed hopefully they will either
hire professionals to be located at schools or have the requirement for carrying a gun inside the
school classroom be much higher than it is currently as eight hours of training is not even close
to enough time.

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A false sense of security can be worse than no security as it can just lead to more trouble than it
is worth.
In my opinion the law should be altered to make the requirements for carrying a
concealed handgun tougher regardless. You should have to be able to pass what they currently
have as well as training in scenarios where you would be required to use your gun. Some
scenarios could include a robbery, public shooting, being mugged, and encountering law
enforcement and how to properly surrender yourself and your gun so you dont get shot because
they think you are the shooter. I also believe that you would have to complete between 100 to
300 hours of training per year in order to keep your license as well as new scenarios.
If the law is changed to prevent concealed handguns in schools I believe the schools
should be responsible for hiring trained professionals to conduct security on campus. When I say
this I do not mean a security company who has people with flashlights and metal detectors. I
mean someone who has completed the necessary training from ALERRT or someone who used
to be a police officer. This would be the easier method and cost the school more money but it
would be worth it for the students to be able to not have to worry about anything bad happening
while they are trying to better themselves.

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References
(Ralph Barrera/Austin American-Statesman via AP, F. (2016). Texas attorney general says
professors face discipline if they ban guns | Fox News. Fox News. Retrieved 15 August
2016, from http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/08/10/texas-attorney-general-saysprofessors-face-discipline-if-ban-guns.html
Mass Shootings - 2016 | Gun Violence Archive. (2016). Gunviolencearchive.org.
Retrieved 15 August 2016, from http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/massshooting
Jordan Klepper: Good Guy with a Gun Pt. 1-The Daily Show with Trevor Noah - Video
Clip | Comedy Central. (2016). Comedy Central. Retrieved 15 August 2016, from
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/xqleli/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-jordan-klepper-good-guy-with-a-gun-pt--1
Jordan Klepper: Good Guy with a Gun pt. 2-The Daily Show with Trevor Noah - Video
Clip | Comedy Central. (2016). Comedy Central. Retrieved 15 August 2016, from
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/w2bq3a/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-jordan-klepper-good-guy-with-a-gun-pt--2
FBI Releases Study on Active Shooter Incidents. (2016). Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Retrieved 15 August 2016, from https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/fbi-releases-study-onactive-shooter-incidents