JR over at A Keyboard and a 45 has this article on the language of the substitute bill for HB 1893 and the change in co-authors. I sent a note to my Rep, Fred Brown, concerning this bill and the situation and after exchanging e-mails with his Chief of Staff was given his cell phone number to call and speak directly with him.
After work yesterday I called. He was likely still on the House floor so I left a brief message for him with my name and specific concern. Later in the evening, he called back to chat. We had a very good conversation about not only this bill but what is happening in the legislature right now and his support overall. He is solidly behind this bill restoring the civil right to self protection to college campuses just as he has been behind the civil right to self protection here in Texas all along. He is a supporter of armed self defense and a friend to gun owners. READ THAT AGAIN, I'll wait. He pulled is co-authorship from this bill as it got substituted because the Texas Leg is currently in their scramble mode to get bills moving before they run out of time and he is concentrating his efforts on bills he authored. He has been so wrapped up with his bills that he hasn't had the time to put effort into pushing this particular bill so he spoke to Joe Driver (author) and told him that until the final version hits the House floor, he wanted to take his name off the bill.
Now, on to this bill and Rep Browns Support.
Fred Brown represents one of the districts that contains a major state university. His job is to equally represent all the constituents in his district. That being said, I guarantee that the anti-gun faculty and administration at the university that are opposed to this bill are letting him know how they feel. To balance this out, all those who work/live/go to school in Bryan/College Station, Brazos County, District 14 need to contact his office and not only tell them that you support this bill but that you appreciate the support Rep Brown has given CHL's and the citizens of Texas and District 14 in the past. For that matter, no matter where you live in Texas, you need to take 5 minutes out of your day and contact your Rep and let them know your thoughts on getting this bill passed.
One of the canards being pushed against this bill is the standard "blood in the streets" argument that was used against CHL in the first place and has been disproven over and over again. The corollary to this is the "heated discussion" between professor and student turning into a shooting and that the professors are afraid of armed students snapping under the stress and shooting them of going on a rampage. TOTAL HYPERBOLE! As well as not based in reality or fact. So, lets take this level of fauctualness and feelings and turn it around shall we? The more likely scenario is that the anti gun professor finds out student X is carrying, due to said professors bigoted bias against guns, they grade student X harsher than the others and give them a lower grade based on their own bias. This argument has the same merit as the anti's side because it is based on the same lack of understanding and feelings instead of facts and it is just as possible.
So, take 5 minutes out of you life and contact your Rep. It's not that hard.
Must now get ready for work, I've got taxes to pay.
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This is good stuff. Thanx for seeing it through as far as you did and reporting on the results.
ReplyDeleteThe more likely scenario is that the anti gun professor finds out student X is carrying, due to said professors bigoted bias against guns, they grade student X harsher than the others and give them a lower grade based on their own bias. This argument has the same merit as the anti's side because it is based on the same lack of understanding and feelings instead of facts and it is just as possible.I was going to object to saying that this is "just as possible" as the "heated argument turning into shooting" of the antis, but then I had a second thought. Sure, it'd be a shame if a student got graded more harshly for things not relevant to the course at hand, but it's not like that doesn't happen today on a variety of issues (I got graded more harshly in my freshman Humanities class, lo these 16 years ago, for daring to point out that the quotations our textbook was using to point out "inconsistencies" in the Book of Job were being misquoted/wrong speakers being assigned). And while I felt proud to verbally stand up for the Book my faith is based on, any CHL-holding student who lets the news get out that he does carry has made a huge mistake. He might verbally support concealed-carry and be proud to do so, and the prof may in fact judge him based on that (which in a perfect world the prof wouldn't), but I'd find it hard to put a whole lot of possibility in the chance that a responsible CHL-holder would "out" himself on purpose to someone he couldn't trust to keep their trap shut.
ReplyDeleteWhich is a roundabout way of saying, yes you're probably right, and both situations have about the same change of actually happening: .00001% IMO. ;-)
JT, right there with you. I am trying to point out the absurdity of the situation as described by an anti-gun pref afraid of student adn just how silly the argument really is.
ReplyDeleteEasiest way to do this is to turn it around and see how it sounds.
Remember, the most thorough, accurate collection of facts, statistics, and arguments supporting the legalization of concealed carry on Texas college campuses is the "SCCC Handbook: Texas Edition." The handbook can be downloaded as a PDF file here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.StudentsForConcealedCarryOnCampus.com
It can be viewed as a Flash document here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/11922308/SCCC-Handbook-Texas-Edition