'Campus Carry' goes into effect as Texas remembers UT

Tower shootings 50 years later

As for community colleges, they have until August 2017 to allow weapons, giving them more time to
adjust for security and other measures.
Private schools like Baylor, Rice, Texas Christian and others can ban guns under the state law.
Currently, Amberton University, which doesn't allow students under 21 and has a total enrollment
under 2,000, is the only private school that has opted to allow guns.
At Texas A&M University in College Station, guns are allowed in dorm rooms and teachers must get
permission from the administration to ban guns from their office. State law still bans weapons from
some campus areas, such as hospitals and sporting events.
Officials at UT were set Monday to rededicate a new memorial to the 1966 shooting: a chunk of
granite more than six feet tall, replacing a much smaller plaque. Crews sand-blasted the names of
the victims onto the boulder,?The Daily Texan reported.
Officials?told the Austin American-Statesman?it was a coincidence that the law took effect 50 years
to the day after the UT shooting.?Marine-trained sniper Charles Whitman climbed to the observation
deck of the 27-story clock tower in the heart of UT's flagship Austin campus, armed with rifles,
pistols and a sawed-off shotgun on Aug. 1, 1966, killing 13 people and wounding more than 30
others before officers gunned him down.
Concealed handgun license holders in Texas can carry their weapons into public university
buildings, classrooms and dorms starting Monday, a day that also marks 50 years after the mass
shooting at the University of Texas' landmark clock tower.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The killing spree in Texas helped introduce the nation to the concept of a "mass shooting" outside
the context of a military battlefield.
Opponents of the law fear it will chill free speech on campus and lead to more campus suicide. The
former dean of the University of Texas School of Architecture left for a position at the University of
Pennsylvania because of his opposition to allowing guns on campus.
Whitman?had killed his wife and mother before he headed to the tower, investigators said. One
victim died in the hospital a week later and medical examiners eventually attributed a 17th death to
Whitman in 2001 -- a man who had been shot and wounded in his one functioning kidney and elected
to stop dialysis treatment.
For example, at the University of Texas at Austin, teachers will be allowed to declare their offices as
gun-free zones, but most will post signs announcing it. Dorm residents can have guns in common
areas, such as dining areas and lounges, but not sleeping rooms, where no storage of weapons is
allowed. Exceptions to the room restrictions will be made for visiting family members who are
licensed to carry handguns.
The open carry law in Texas specifically does not apply to college campuses. Any handguns on

campus must be holstered and kept out of sight.

Texas has allowed concealed handguns in public for 20 years. Gun rights advocates consider it an
important protection, given the constitutional right to bear arms, as well as a key self-defense
measure in cases of campus violence, such as the 1966 UT shootings and the 2007 shootings at
Virginia Tech.
Generally, the new Texas law allows guns in buildings, classrooms and dorms, but rules may differ
from campus to campus, as each school is required to map that out.
The campus-carry law pushed by Gov. Greg Abbott and the Republican legislative majority makes
Texas one of a handful of states guaranteeing the right to carry concealed handguns on campus.?
Texas has more than 1 million concealed handgun license holders. People who wish to get a license
must be at least 21 (18 if in the military) and pass both classroom and gun range training courses.
There are also restrictions on convicted felons, people charged with felonies and high-level
misdemeanors or people with a history of mental illness.