The new concealed-carry law for colleges promotes fear.
The new campus-carry law will go into effect on all community college campuses in August 2017. Chancellor Bruce Leslie is preparing a task force to determine where guns can be carried on Alamo Colleges campuses.
Limiting those locations is a good idea. People wih concealed handgun licenses carrying guns on campus serve as a distraction to education in several ways.
Teachers might be afraid to give students hard or challenging curriculum for fear students will retaliate by bringing a gun to class if they get a bad grade.
Students might be afraid to come to school or transfer to another institution if they do not know which of their classmates is armed.
Students come to college to learn and prepare for a career, not to fear the actions of fellow students.
Students with children who leave them at the early childhood center to attend class might think twice with a concealed carry campus.
Those children also play in the playground south of the early childhood center at Howard Street and West Courtland Place.
On the west side across the street from the center, the south yard of Koehler Cultural Center is also used as a playground for students of Great Hearts Monte Vista Elementary.
Scobee Education Center conducts tours throughout the year for local school children from elementary to high school.
Besides the presence of children at this college, Travis Early College High School is right next door at North Main Avenue and West Dewey Place.
Students from the high school also attend classes at this college.
This campus is open to the public during events like SACtacular. Not only should our students and employees be concerned about who is armed, but strangers visiting our campus should also.
With all these considerations, guns should be allowed in as few areas as possible.
If not, at least keep concealed carry to the Alamo Colleges police department building or the law enforcement annex. That is where they belong — in buildings where trained police officers know how to use them.
Having guns anywhere else doesn’t help students learn and feel safe. It only gives them many different scenarios to worry about.
