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Not a “Nonissue”: Perceptions and Realities of Campus Carry at The University of Texas at Austin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 December 2020

SAMPO RUOPPILA  and
ALBION M. BUTTERS
SAMPO RUOPPILA
Affiliation:
Department of Social Research, University of Turku. Email: sampo.ruoppila@utu.fi.
ALBION M. BUTTERS
Affiliation:
John Morton Center for North American Studies, University of Turku. Email: albion.butters@utu.fi.
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Abstract

As a publicly funded institution,The University of Texas at Austin had to implement the state's legislation to allow concealed handguns on campus. Yet its own Campus Carry policy has sought to erase the matter from everyday campus life. The administration deems it a “nonissue,” presuming that students have become accustomed to the idea, do not think about it actively, and have a low interest in acquiring a handgun license. This paper, based on a survey of the university's undergraduates, questions these ideas. It shows that a majority of students think that the issue is important and examines in what sense the students are troubled by its effects. While opinions differ between supporters and opponents of Campus Carry, divergences also exist within their ranks, such as among supporters of the law regarding where guns should specifically be allowed at the university. On the basis of the survey, the essay also examines how many licensed carriers are actually on campus, compared to the university's estimates.

Type
Forum: Perceiving Security and Insecurity: The Campus Carry Law in Texas
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 55 , Issue 2 , May 2021 , pp. 299 - 311
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and British Association for American Studies 2020

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References

1 Interview with author 1, The University of Texas at Austin, 4 March 2019, notes in possession of author 1.

2 Cassandra Pollock and Emma Platoff, “Federal Appeals Court Upholds Texas Campus Carry Law,” Texas Tribune, 21 Aug. 2018, at www.lubbockonline.com/news/20180821/federal-appeals-court-upholds-texas-campus-carry-law, accessed 12 May 2020.

3 Tom Dart, “Cocks Not Glocks: Texas Students Carry Dildos on Campus to Protest Gun Law,” The Guardian, 25 Aug. 2016, at www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/25/cocks-not-glocks-texas-campus-carry-gun-law-protest, accessed 12 May 2020.

4 Short, Aric, “Sane Gun Policy from Texas: Blueprint for Balanced State Campus Carry Laws,” Northeastern University Law Review, 11, 2 (2019), 401–73Google Scholar.

5 Interview, 20 April 2018. See also Heiskanen, Benita, “Un/Seeing Campus Carry: Experiencing Gun Culture in Texas,” European Journal of American Studies, 15, 2 (2020)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/15817, accessed 8 Aug. 2020.

6 Section 30.06 of the Texas Penal Code provides the legal text for signs restricting entry to holders of an LTC (license to carry) with a concealed handgun. Whereas the text is statutory, the visual sign is not. UT Austin decided to allow the text only, reflecting a deliberate choice following their chosen policy. The most common image on 30.06 signs features a slash over a gun inside a red circle. See www.mysecuritysign.com/texas-concealed-carry-signs-3006-3007, accessed 10 May 2020.

7 Interview, 4 March 2019, based on policy as of that date.

8 Interview, 26 April 2018.

9 Accommodating the law in a way that would limit the impact was a conscious choice. UT Austin president Gregory Fenves told the New York Times immediately after the implementation of the law that the best outcome would be “that the law had no noticeable effect and that a year from now the campus had forgotten about it.” Dave Philips, “What University of Texas Campus Is Saying about Concealed Guns,” New York Times, 26 Aug. 2016, at www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/us/university-of-texas-campus-concealed-guns.html, accessed 8 Aug. 2020.

10 See introduction to this JAS Forum.

11 Two-thirds (67%) of UT Austin's undergraduates are aged 18 to 21, exceeding the national average (60%). See http://collegefactual.com, accessed 10 May 2020.

12 Birnbaum, Robert, “Ready, Fire, Aim: The College Campus Gun Fight,” Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 45, 5 (2013), 6‒14CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 7; see also Arrigo, Bruce and Acheson, Austin, “Concealed Carry Bans and the American College Campus: A Law, Social Sciences, and Policy Perspective,” Contemporary Justice Review, 19, 1 (2016), 120–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 121.

13 Birnbaum, 8.

14 LaPoint, Lisa A., “The Up and Down Battle for Concealed Carry at Public Universities,” Colorado State University Journal of Student Affairs, 19 (2010), 16–21Google Scholar, 18; Wolcott, Christopher M., “The Chilling Effect of Campus Carry: How the Kansas Campus Carry Statute Impermissibly Infringes upon the Academic Freedom of Individual Professors and Faculty Members,” University of Kansas Law Review, 65 (2017), 875–911Google Scholar.

15 Daniel W. Webster et al., “Firearms on College Campuses: Research Evidence and Policy Implications,” Johns Hopkins, Bloomberg School of Public Health & Center for Gun Policy and Research, 15 Oct. 2016.

16 Diana A. Drysdale, William Modzeleski, and Andre B. Simons, “Campus Attacks: Targeted Violence Affecting Institutions of Higher Education,” US Secret Service, US Department of Homeland Security, Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, US Department of Education, and Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Department of Justice, Washington, DC, at www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/campus-attacks.pdf, accessed 23 Oct. 2019.

17 Birnbaum, 11.

18 Webster et al., 9–12; Short, “Sane Gun Policy from Texas,” 414–16.

19 See, e.g., Thompson, Amy, Price, James H., Dake, Joseph A., and Teeple, Karen, “Faculty Perceptions and Practices Regarding Carrying Concealed Handguns on University Campuses,” Journal of Community Health, 38 (2013), 366–73CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Thompson, Amy, Price, James H., Dake, Joseph A., Teeple, Karen, Bassler, Sara, Khubchandani, Jagdish et al. , “Student Perceptions and Practices Regarding Carrying Concealed Handguns on University Campuses,” Journal of American College Health, 61, 5 (2013), 243–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dahl, Patricia P., Bonham, Gene Jr. and Reddington, Frances P., “Community College Faculty: Attitudes toward Guns on Campus,” Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 40, 8 (2016), 706–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 Thompson et al., “Faculty Perceptions”; Dahl, Bonham, and Reddington.

21 Thompson et al., “Faculty Perceptions.”

22 Arrigo and Acheson, 134.

23 Webster et al.

24 See, for example LaPoint.

25 In Figure 2, the categories of “Agree” and “Disagree” contain both the opinions of those who feel strongly or somewhat on the matter.

26 Thompson et al., “Faculty Perceptions”; Dahl, Bonham, and Reddington.

27 Short, 459–66.

28 Bouffard, Jeffrey A., Nobles, Matt R., Wells, William, and Cavanaugh, Michael R., “How Many Guns? Estimating the Effect of Allowing Licensed Concealed Handguns on a College Campus,” Journal of Intrapersonal Violence, 27, 2 (2012), 316–43CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

29 This kind of information is available only from a survey (N = 292), which Melissa van Winkle conducted in 2010 as a part of her master's thesis at UT Arlington, ranked as the best university in the United States for veterans; see George Altman, “Best for Vets: Top Colleges 2020,” Military Times, 28 Oct. 2019. A quarter of the respondents (26%) there, mostly enrolled in the Criminology and Criminal Justice program, stated that they would carry on campus if allowed. Noteworthy is that 8% already had an LTC, which in 2010 considerably exceeded the statewide average. See Melissa van Winkle, “Students’ Opinions toward Carrying Concealed Guns on Campus,” master's thesis, the University of Texas at Arlington, 2010.

30 Pew Research Center, “America's Complex Relationship with Guns,” 22 June 2017, at www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/22/key-take-aways-on-americans-views-of-guns-and-gun-ownership, accessed 12 May 2020.

31 The number of respondents falling into these groups is too small for any far-reaching conclusions, yet the share of gun-owning LTC holders was equal among the Campus Carry supporters and opponents, whereas the plan to get one was twice as common among the supporters. Carrying on campus was predominant among the LTC-holding law supporters.

32 Demographic Reports on Licenses, Applications and Certificates, Texas Department of Public Safety, 2019, at www.dps.texas.gov/rsd/LTC/reports/demographics.htm, accessed 12 May 2020.

33 John R. Lott Jr., “Concealed Carry Permit Holders across the United States: 2016,” Crime Prevention Research Center, 2016, at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2814691, accessed 12 May 2020; Reports on Active License and Instructor Counts, Texas Department of Public Safety, 1995–2019; Shapira, Harel, Jensen, Katherine, and Lin, Ken-Hou, “Trends and Patterns of Concealed Handgun License Applications: A Multistate Analysis,” Social Currents, 5, 1 (2018), 3–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 6–7.

34 Jessica H. Young, “Texas Concentrations of Most Gun Licenses Per Capita Aren't Where You'd Think,” Chron, 12 May 2016, at www.chron.com/houston/article/The-Texas-counties-with-the-most-gun-licenses-per-7464669.php, accessed 12 May 2020.

35 On this call for future research, see Arrigo and Acheson, “Concealed Carry Bans,” 133–34.