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CONTACT:
Madison D. Welch, Southwest Director, Students for Concealed Carry (SCC) - madison.welch@concealedcampus.org
SCC Board of Directors: organizers@concealedcampus.org
TEXAS UNIVERSITIES USE FABRICATED COSTS TO CAST DOUBT ON CAMPUS CARRY
During the 2011 Texas Legislative Session, Senator Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) announced on the Senate floor that, according to
the administrators of colleges in his district, then-pending legislation to legalize the licensed concealed carry of handguns on Texas
college campuses would cost those institutions millions of dollars in increased insurance premiums. That claim was quickly refuted
(http://is.gd/t3CvDt) but not before the fabricated specter of an "unfunded mandate" succeeded in derailing the bill in question. In
light of this history, it's no surprise that college administrators, again aided by Senator Ellis, are once again warning of expenses that
exist only in their imaginations.
According to an article (http://is.gd/YWO9wX) published in the Sunday, February 22, edition of the Houston Chronicle, the UT
and UH systems believe that Senate Bill 11the "campus carry" billwould cost them an aggregate of $47 million over six years. Not
surprisingly, most of that purported cost would be borne by campuses in Senator Ellis's own district. Reportedly, $22 million
(approximately 47%) would be needed by the on-campus police department at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center,
for "the installation of gun safes and lockers, additional administrative personnel and to fund 'de-escalation' and 'judgment' training
for staff and on-campus security." That's $6.5 million per year, over the initial six years, for an institution (http://is.gd/hFPTly) that
serves fewer than 6,500 trainees (mostly graduate students and post-doctoral residents and researchers), that offers no on-campus
housing, and that would (under SB 11) retain the right to prohibit guns in any facility functioning as part of a licensed hospital.
The University of Houston System, which operates primarily in Senator Ellis's district, claims it would spend $3 million the first
year and $1.2 million each year thereafter, to "create, maintain, and staff secured weapons storage facilities in nine dormitories."
According to a 2013 article (http://is.gd/Wj4ygx) in the Houston Chronicle, the main UH campus has a dorm capacity of 8,008 students
(the second-largest dorm capacity of any Texas university, behind only Texas A&M). According to the website (http://is.gd/lanSTS) for
UH-Victoria, the UH-Victoria campus has a dorm capacity of just over 600. No other UH campus offers on-campus housing. This means
thatbased on the low rate (http://is.gd/Kgqgnx) of concealed handgun licensure among persons of typical undergraduate age (1823) and the low rate (http://is.gd/8WtGpC) at which persons over the age of 21 live in on-campus dormsthe UH System is concerned
about securing fewer than a half-dozen handguns per year. Madison Welch, Southwest regional director for Students for Concealed
Carry, commented, "If the University of Houston System can't figure out a way to secure handguns for less than $200,000 per
handgun per year, they have much bigger problems than campus carry."
Nothing in Senate Bill 11 (http://is.gd/1DnM1m) would require universities to create or staff "secured weapons storage
facilities." The bill simply states that institutions of higher education would be allowed to "establish rules, regulations, or other
provisions concerning the storage of handguns in dormitories or other residential facilities that are owned or leased and operated by
the institution and located on the campus of the institution." Based on the wording of that provision, universities could presumably
require the handful of dorm residents who possess a valid concealed handgun license (CHL) to check their firearms at the campus
police station before turning in for the night. Or UH could do what the University of Colorado System does (http://is.gd/9rWw1b) and
offer only one gun-friendly residence hall per campus (the UH System appears to have only two campuses with dormitories).
Alternatively, UH could simply continue its current policy (per state law) of allowing CHL holders living in on-campus housing to store
their guns in their cars. As for the need to provide additional training for staff and on-campus security, Madison Welch noted:
For more than nineteen years, it has been legal for a CHL holder to park her car in a campus parking garage, take a leisurely
stroll through campus, and stop to read a book under one of the trees in the middle of the campus quad, all while carrying
a concealed handgun. Yet we're expected to believe that letting that same license holder carry her concealed handgun into
a campus building would necessitate millions of dollars in additional training for the same security officers who didn't need
any additional training to protect the parking garage, the sidewalk, or the quad. Either universities are fishing for funding
for security improvements they should have implemented decades ago, or they and their friend Senator Ellis are once again
relying on fuzzy math and fuzzy ethics to derail good legislation.
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ABOUT STUDENTS FOR CONCEALED CARRY Students for Concealed Carry (SCC) is a national, non-partisan, grassroots organization
comprising college students, faculty, staff, and concerned citizens who believe that holders of state-issued concealed handgun licenses
should be allowed the same measure of personal protection on college campuses that current laws afford them virtually everywhere
else. SCC is not affiliated with the NRA or any other organization. For more information on SCC, visit ConcealedCampus.org or
Facebook.com/ConcealedCampus.
RELATED: http://tinyurl.com/scc-oped-aas | http://tinyurl.com/scc-oped-dmn | http://tinyurl.com/txscc-why-campus-carry