Chanting, "Gun-free UT. Make it safe for you and me," and, "Guns are not a teaching tool. They do not belong in school," more than 200 attendees at the Modern Language Association's annual meeting marched to the Texas Capitol Friday to protest the state's new "campus carry" law.
The law, which will take effect this year, allows guns into public college classrooms and dormitories -- much to the anger of many professors at Texas and elsewhere. Many other states are considering similar legislation, although bills in other states would give public colleges more leeway to block guns from some locations. Texas, where conservative lawmakers control the Legislature, has in the past few years passed numerous laws to loosen or eliminate controls on guns. For example, starting this year, guns are allowed in state psychiatric facilities.
But it is the law permitting guns on public college campuses that has particularly upset faculty members. They built their protest around teaching and books, talking about how they need to create environments to discuss controversial works without any threat of violence.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/01/11/mla-attendees-march-protest-campus-carry-law