Texas HBCU Students Show Concern Over New Campus Gun Law

“[Police] expect violence from us because of where we come from and our color, now they have even more of an excuse.”

Students at the Texas Southern University have voiced their worries, concerning the new gun law that allows licensed gun owners to carry weapons on campus. The students are perturbed, as this might bring about an unsafe environment to live and study.

The complaints of students from other Texas state-run campuses have varied. While most of them have talked about how they worry their mates could get into heated arguments with professors over grades or even amongst one another, students of TSU have expressed their worry about how the law might impact the relationship with Houston and TCU cops and classmates.

“Many of the men on this campus, young black men, are not allowed to walk outside their house without getting stopped by police, so now if they’re going to class and have a gun in their possession… It’s not good for them,” Denasia Green, a 20-year-old communications major, told BuzzFeed News. “If one of the few white students on campus pulled a gun in a class, and one of the many black students took out their gun to defend the classroom when the cops show up, they’re gonna think it’s the black guy,” Another student, Laura Jones, said.

Similar to all state schools, in TSU, firearms are prohibited in health centers, residence halls, and research labs. The new campus carries law has been followed by resentful statements from TSU President John Rudley. Rudley stated that he wished firearms weren’t allowed in all premises of the university. “Too many guns are accessible to students and to people in general in our community. I mean, we have guns everywhere, I don’t want to be in the position that we have to explain why our students are dying,” he said.

One of the students said: “The truth is this law isn’t for us. It’s for those white boys over at University of Houston.” Because of the constant discrimination of Blacks, this law could be a disaster. Black people won’t be allowed to carry firearms as freely as white people and neither would the law be on their side in a case of a shooting. We need to stand against racial discrimination by police at universities. Black people have the same rights for the second amendment as whites.

Source: BuzzFeedNews