Sul Ross Sticks by its Guns

By Dawson Beard, Skyline Correspondent

ALPINE _ Even in the wake of the tragic shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Sul Ross State University still allows students to carry handguns on campus.

But, in apparent contradiction of a new Texas law that removed a licensing requirement, officials said, the University still requires a permit. Campus spokesperson Betse Esparza cited an exemption in the law that allows schools to maintain the licensing rule. “There is an exemption for higher education,” Esparza told the Skyline.

According to policy spelled out in the University handbook and posted on the website, “licensed individuals may carry licensed handguns on campus premises except in locations and at activities prohibited by law and regulation.”

The Sul Ross policy is mirrored by the University of Texas system as all institutions within the system impose some restrictions on how a handgun can be carried.

Students are split on whether they agree with the policy, with only half saying classmates should be allowed to pack. In a recent informal campus poll of 20 students, with a wide range of gender and race, 5% said they carried handguns. Slightly over 50% told the Skyline they had no problem with armed classmates, of whom more than half said only with a permit, while the rest said it should be forbidden under any circumstance.

The right to bear arms is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, but controversy has swirled around the practicalities of upholding that law, especially when it comes to campuses. There are public outcries for more gun regulation with such shootings as Uvalde, which took the lives of 19 kids and two adults, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High in Florida, and Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut. Predictably, gun advocates, backed by the powerful firearms industry and their mostly Republican allies in Congress, fight against any meaningful reform, while Democrats, liberals and victims’ rights groups demand change.

Texas, under Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, passed a law September 2021 removing the requirement that those over 21 must have a license to carry a handgun. Other states are split evenly on whether permits are mandatory.

John J. Donohue III, a Stanford Law School professor and the author of several recent studies looking at handgun regulations and crime, opposes the new laws.

“The weight of the evidence has shifted in the direction that more handguns equals more crime,” Donohue recently told the New York Times, “I think most people are reasoning by analogy: If you thought that right-to-carry was harmful, this will be worse.”

Others, such as John R. Lott Jr., the author of “More Guns, Less Crime,” argues that crime decreases as handgun regulations are loosened, and the perceived increase in crime was because of newer studies failing to recognize the differences between state handgun regulations.

“If my research convinces me of anything, it’s that you’re going to get the biggest reduction in crime if the people who are most likely victims of violent crime, predominantly poor Blacks, are the ones who are getting the permits.” Lott told the Times.