Texas Doubling Down On Gun Crazy

Today's example of taking a bad thing and making it worse comes from the great state of Texas which is seriously considering allowing students on its various college and university campuses to carry concealed weapons. Here's the relevant reporting courtesy of NBC:

More than a dozen state senators have signed on to Senate Bill 182, also known as the “Campus Personal Protection Act."
The bill's primary author, Senator Brian Birdwell, said the bill is about preserving the 2nd Amendment.

“This affords CHL holders, one of the most lawful group of citizens in our state, to be able exercise that 2nd amendment right to go on to the campus of higher learning to be able defend themselves and protect their right to self-preservation, God forbid, some act of evil be perpetrated,” Birdwell said.

If passed, the bill would allow CHL holders to bring concealed weapons onto public universities. Private universities could choose to go gun-free.

Now, without a doubt there is a place in our society for armed civilians -- civilians with training, certification, and significant oversight to be sure, but civilians nonetheless -- but I can think of no worse a place nor group of people upon which to bestow the right to carry concealed weapons than colleges and their students.

College is a place where stakes are high, where people take risks, and where bad decisions are commonplace.  It is very difficult to imagine that any of those characteristics would be somehow improved by the presence of firearms.  

Moreover, and perhaps more to the point, the concealed-carry nightmare of a shootout on a college campus is far more than a hypothetical situation in Texas.  Earlier this year shots were fired in the course of an altercation at Lone Star College in Houston, sending four people to the hospital. 

ABC led off their reporting as follows:

A fight between two people erupted in gunfire Tuesday at a Houston-area community college, catching a maintenance man in the crossfire and leaving students and others cowering in classrooms.

But sure, Texas, let's see what happens when you add firearms to our society's most prominent institution of irresponsibility and excess.  What could possibly go wrong?