Concealed carry legislation has failed to pass the Texas Legislature in its last three session, and yet concealed carry legislation has been proposed again. University police have said allowing guns on campus could make it harder to maintain safety especially in an active shooter situation.

Senate Bill 11, coauthored by 19 of 20 Republican senators including Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls, was filed on Jan. 26 to allow concealed handguns to be carried on college campuses. An identical bill, House Bill 937, was filed on the same day.

According to the current campus policy, individuals can have weapons on campus as long as they are concealed within a vehicle.

SB 11 and HB 937, as filed, would allow Texans over the age of 21 with a Concealed Handgun License to carry the weapon into buildings, but give universities the option to institute a check-in policy for the residence halls.

“The bill as filed gives universities the chance to have students check their weapon upon entering a residence hall,” said Keith Lamb, vice president of student affairs and enrollment management. “Frankly, that mitigated one of our biggest concerns of having weapons in a residence hall.”

Lamb said residence halls are densely populated and there is a concern about students leaving weapons unattended and another student getting ahold of it.

A concern expressed by Lamb and Chief of University Police Dan Williams is maintaining safety on campus.

“The last three or four legislative sessions the conceal carry on campus has been close to passing,” Williams said. “It would not surprise me if it does pass mainly due to the support the bill currently has. Many of the top legislators in the state are supporting it.”

Lamb said if the bill passes, MSU could not maintain the same level of safety on campus because officials could not predict when a person would pull a weapon or under what circumstances. Further, he said it could make emergency situations even more dangerous.

“The last few times this has come up statewide police organizations have said that they are concerned with safety with concealed carry,” Lamb said. “One of the things they pointed to was if there was an active shooter on-campus and your campus police arrive and there are multiple weapons drawn how do they discern who’s the aggressor and who’s not, and that could potentially complicate a situation.”

Though it is unclear how the law will be worded, Lamb and Williams both said the university will have to follow whatever statue, if any, is put into place.

“Midwestern State University is a state agency so whatever the Legislature statutorily requires, we will adhere to those laws,” Lamb said.

Williams said because the law hasn’t been set into place he would not comment on how the policies and procedures will change on campus or what would or would not be allowed.

“Until the final bills are passed it is nearly impossible for me to state how it will change what we currently do or do not allow on campus,” Williams said.

Lamb said he just knows that something will have to change.

“We have to look at our response policies and make sure we are accounting for that somehow,” Lamb said. “I don’t know how you do that, but I don’t think you can have response policies in that environment that mirror response policies in a non-carry environment.”

Students express concern for their safety if Texas Legislature allows concealed license holders to come into classrooms with a weapon.

“It sounds like a terrible bill to me,” said Kenneth Griffin, mechanical engineering sophomore. “Considering the age and apparent mental health of some of my fellow students, I personally wouldn’t feel comfortable knowing some of my fellow students had a firearm on them. Around finals time last semester, we had a bomb threat at the campus that wasn’t handled all too gracefully. I can imagine if an active shooter on campus happened next year and my fellow students decided to be heroes, there could be possibilities for more casualties.”

Other students think it is well within their second amendment right to carry a gun and that it might even protect you in the long run.

“I feel like there aren’t many students who would actually conceal carry,” said Branson Spencer, music education junior. “The students who ‘shoot up’ the school would bring a gun no matter what the law was. I feel like taking away restrictions on where you can and can’t take guns can only benefit for society. For every ‘bad guy’ there can now be a law abiding citizen that could possibly save a life if anything was to happen.”