My Opinion on HB 1911 and its Future Status

     House Bill 1911 was approved by a house committee last week and will now head to the full Texas legislature.  In a recent blog post I discussed my disapproval for HB 375 that would allow permit-less carry and extend it to 18 year olds; even on college campuses.  Bill 1911 is very similar and would have allowed 18 year olds to carry arms without a license but doesn't interfere with the campus carry law passed back in 2015.
   That was the main gist of the original bill that I would have opposed, but the modified bill that was approved by The House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee has different terms.  Although the goal of permit-less carry remains in the bill, the age is raised to 21 and added regulations and restrictions are included.  I feel that this is a good common ground between the opposing sides on this matter, especially regarding the age restriction.  My main disapproval for these bills came from the concerning fact that they would allow 18 year olds to carry guns.  I see this as a huge mistake- 18 years old is just too young to be allowed the responsibility of carrying a firearm in public.
     Without modification to bill 375 it is not likely it will go much farther, but Jonathan Strickland, creator of the bill, refuses to "water it down".  Hopefully the bill won't proceed further and bill 1911 can take its place as the common ground.

Source: https://www.texastribune.org/2017/04/18/house-committee-approves-modified-permitless-carry-legislation/

Peer Commentary

     My classmates blog was very clearly written and thoroughly explained the topic.  I strongly agree that allowing guns to be carried on college campuses poses a large threat.  College students are always under stress and are usually not in a proper state of mind to have the responsibility of holding a gun.  Guns should absolutely not be allowed to be carried by students on college campuses.  

     The point the author of the blog made about how easy it is to obtain a gun or a gun license in Texas.  I wrote a blog on that topic recently and the author very accurately described the gun licensing situation in Texas.  There is very little needed to get a gun or a carrying license already so easing up on current laws is not the right direction we should be headed for.