The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence scores states based on their gun control laws. My home state of Texas has received four points out of a maximum 100. Given that information, the reader might assume that the streets of Texas are riddled with armed conflicts between gun-happy Texans keeping the shootout style of the old West alive. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth.
The last time Texas had a shooting on par with Aurora was in 2009, when Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan shot and killed 13 soldiers and left 29 more wounded at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas. However, this took place in a gun-free zone on a military base where state gun laws don’t apply. The last time such a shooting took place in the general public was on Oct. 16, 1991, when George Hennard crashed his truck into a Luby’s restaurant also located in Killeen, after which he went on a rampage that ended with 23 dead and 27 more wounded.
Among the casualties of the “Luby’s Massacre” were Alphonse and Ursula Gratia, who were having lunch with their daughter, Susanna Hupp. Hupp carried a revolver in her vehicle but was not allowed to carry her weapon on her person in public places per Texas law at that time. Hupp later testified that Hennard passed near her several times during the massacre and that she would have been able to defend herself and end the bloodshed early had she been armed. Hupp’s testimony was instrumental in passing a concealed carry bill in Texas in 1995, despite extreme opposition from liberal anti-gun groups on the grounds that such a bill would result in frequent shootings.
The reality since the passage of the bill has been quite different. According to a 2000 review from the National Center for Policy Analysis, in the five years after the Concealed Handgun Licensing law passed, aggravated assault rates dropped 13.8 percent, robberies fell 18.4 percent, rapes fell 16.3 percent, and the murder rate fell 32.2 percent. The same report found that Texans who had been issued CHLs were far less likely to commit a crime than the average citizen – a seemingly intuitive assertion given the background check and training process one must go through to receive a CHL.
While no single policy can be pointed to as the cause of any significant drop in crime, the results have been similar in other states that passed concealed carry bills around the same time. Additionally, states that didn’t pass similar legislation did not experience crime reductions of the same magnitude during the same time period.
The state of Alabama recognizes the safety benefits of concealed carry, being one of the first states to ever issue concealed carry permits. The Alabama legislature even passed a law in May 2013 expanding the rights of concealed carriers and making it harder for sheriffs to deny permits to qualified applicants.
The University, however, continues to deny those rights to students. In a world where gun-free zones – including universities such as Virginia Tech – have made prime targets for mass shooters, it seems evident that the best way to protect against such incidents isn’t to tell people who don’t even care about laws protecting life that the law prevents them from carrying a firearm, but rather to empower the innocent people they threaten to protect themselves.
Andrew Parks is a junior majoring in political science. His column runs biweekly.
