Texas anti-gunners may be eating a little crow for their attempt to blame the Lone Star State’s year-old campus carry law for the slaying of a Texas Tech University police officer Monday, according to the Washington Post, although some academics maintain the law is wrong.
The Texas Democratic Party issued an apology Tuesday for a tweet that stated “Allowing concealed guns on college campuses was a dumb and dangerous idea. Stay safe, Raiders.”
There are a couple of problems with this statement. The suspect, identified as 19-year-old Hollis Daniels, is too young to have a Texas Concealed Handgun License (CHL) or even possess a handgun, and according to the New York Post, the gun he allegedly used was stolen.
In a statement, Manny Garcia, deputy executive director of the Texas Democratic Party, said “Our words were inadequate, hurried, and we apologize.”
But is that good enough? Campus carry advocates and Second Amendment activists may not think so. The author of that tweet was trying to exploit a tragedy to blame a law that drew heated opposition when it was being considered in 2015, and when it took effect in August 2016.
But according to the WaPo article, “In the year or so since Texas first allowed guns on campus, many university officials across the state have said that the law has not caused any problems.”
That much was confirmed in an Aug. 1 story appearing in the Texas Tribune that quoted various officials.
Daniels has been charged with capital murder of a peace officer. He reportedly confessed to killing Officer Floyd East. Jr. at the Texas Tech police station Monday. After the shooting, Daniels reportedly fled the building but was later apprehended and a gun was recovered, the Washington Post reported.
The Democrats have removed the offensive tweet, but there are still vocal critics of the campus carry law. NBC News quoted University of Texas at Austin Prof. Lisa Moore, a plaintiff in a lawsuit to overturn the campus carry law.
“I think it’s really important not to let our awareness of the loss and sorrow and grief that an event like this causes to distract us from the fact that it is preventable,” Moore asserted. “Of course, this student had a gun with him because the idea that guns belong on college has been encouraged by our legislators.”
Texas Tech music Prof. Christopher Smith was at a student recital at the time of the shooting, and the building went into lockdown. Turns out several people in the room were armed. According to NBC, Smith is a gun owner but also opposes the campus carry law.
However, the story also quoted Michael Newbern, spokesman for Students for Concealed Carry, and he disagreed with the academics. He defended the law for allowing students the ability to defend themselves if necessary.
The situation at Texas Tech is not unlike the aftermath of any high-profile shooting, where anti-gunners almost reflexively focus on guns rather than on holding the culprits responsible. This sort of exploitation has been called “dancing in blood,” which is the title of a book co-authored by Alan Gottlieb, executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation, and this writer.
