By Daniel Rigney
Should guns be permitted in the dorms and classrooms of Texas public colleges and universities? Believe it or not, a bill to enable students to carry weapons on campus legally has been slouching toward passage in the Texas Legislature over these past several weeks. Today there is breaking news on the story. Read on.
But first some background. If you know anything about Texas campuses, you know that Lone Star Beer and his good friend Jack Daniels are present in the student body every day, and even more so on nights and weekends.
Mix these ingredients with academic, emotional and personal stress, anger, and male (or female) ego. Add a dash of carelessness. Horseplay optional. Stir well. Serve hot and smokin'.
I’ve taught at three Texas colleges and universities, two of them public, over the years. In class I sometimes asked my students, “Would you feel safer right now if you knew that you or others in this room were packing heat?” The phrasing and the flagrant absurdity of the question brought an immediate and appreciative chuckle from students. They got it.
The Texas legislature is our state’s theater of the absurd. Senate Bill 1581, the bill that would allow guns on public campuses, is currently at a critical point in the legislative process. Republican Sen. Jeff Wentworth of San Antonio, normally a mild-mannered moderate (by Texas standards) conservative, appears to be playing to the state’s right-wing base on the school gun issue. Coincidentally, he has an election coming up.
Texas is the state, mind you, that once had an MLB franchise named the Houston Colt 45’s and a semi-pro football team called the San Antonio Gunslingers. Don’t mess with Texas.
This just in on last night’s Twitter feed, from Students for Gun-Free Schools in Texas: “Excellent news! The House parliamentarian ruled this evening that the guns-on-campus rider on SB 1581 was not germane and sent the whole bill back to the Senate.” Shooting down the gun rider on SB 1581 could mean the death of the bill. Wentworth and his friends may try to save it with amended language. But if this bill dies in Texas, zombie bills like it are less like to rise up in other states.
Stay tuned on this issue. And thank you, Lord, for Arizona, South Carolina, and a few other states in between. If it weren’t for them, Texas would be the most backward state in the country.
Meanwhile, in two related stories …
A Liberal Gun Club and website (theliberalgunclub.com) have been created “to provide a voice for gun-owning liberals and moderates in the national conversation on gun rights, gun legislation, firearms safety, and shooting sports.” The best man at our wedding – I’ll call him “Richard,” because that’s his name – is the very Jungian archetype of this rare but interesting species. He hunts and fishes like his daddy did before him in the small central Texas community where he grew up. And he’s what we call a “yellow dog Democrat” – a populist who would sooner vote for a dead yellow dog in the road than for a Republican. He loves huntin' and fishin'. As for myself, I do most of my hunting and fishing at Safeway.
The other story: An organization and website (pinkpistols.org) now exists to protect members of sexual minorities and to promote their safe and responsible use of firearms. Its motto: “Pick on someone your own caliber.”
Don’t mess with New Texas.
Should guns be permitted in the dorms and classrooms of Texas public colleges and universities? Believe it or not, a bill to enable students to carry weapons on campus legally has been slouching toward passage in the Texas Legislature over these past several weeks. Today there is breaking news on the story. Read on.
But first some background. If you know anything about Texas campuses, you know that Lone Star Beer and his good friend Jack Daniels are present in the student body every day, and even more so on nights and weekends.
Mix these ingredients with academic, emotional and personal stress, anger, and male (or female) ego. Add a dash of carelessness. Horseplay optional. Stir well. Serve hot and smokin'.
I’ve taught at three Texas colleges and universities, two of them public, over the years. In class I sometimes asked my students, “Would you feel safer right now if you knew that you or others in this room were packing heat?” The phrasing and the flagrant absurdity of the question brought an immediate and appreciative chuckle from students. They got it.
The Texas legislature is our state’s theater of the absurd. Senate Bill 1581, the bill that would allow guns on public campuses, is currently at a critical point in the legislative process. Republican Sen. Jeff Wentworth of San Antonio, normally a mild-mannered moderate (by Texas standards) conservative, appears to be playing to the state’s right-wing base on the school gun issue. Coincidentally, he has an election coming up.
Texas is the state, mind you, that once had an MLB franchise named the Houston Colt 45’s and a semi-pro football team called the San Antonio Gunslingers. Don’t mess with Texas.
This just in on last night’s Twitter feed, from Students for Gun-Free Schools in Texas: “Excellent news! The House parliamentarian ruled this evening that the guns-on-campus rider on SB 1581 was not germane and sent the whole bill back to the Senate.” Shooting down the gun rider on SB 1581 could mean the death of the bill. Wentworth and his friends may try to save it with amended language. But if this bill dies in Texas, zombie bills like it are less like to rise up in other states.
Stay tuned on this issue. And thank you, Lord, for Arizona, South Carolina, and a few other states in between. If it weren’t for them, Texas would be the most backward state in the country.
Meanwhile, in two related stories …
A Liberal Gun Club and website (theliberalgunclub.com) have been created “to provide a voice for gun-owning liberals and moderates in the national conversation on gun rights, gun legislation, firearms safety, and shooting sports.” The best man at our wedding – I’ll call him “Richard,” because that’s his name – is the very Jungian archetype of this rare but interesting species. He hunts and fishes like his daddy did before him in the small central Texas community where he grew up. And he’s what we call a “yellow dog Democrat” – a populist who would sooner vote for a dead yellow dog in the road than for a Republican. He loves huntin' and fishin'. As for myself, I do most of my hunting and fishing at Safeway.
The other story: An organization and website (pinkpistols.org) now exists to protect members of sexual minorities and to promote their safe and responsible use of firearms. Its motto: “Pick on someone your own caliber.”
Don’t mess with New Texas.
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