It must be made clear that if Representative Gallegos allows this bill onto the Senate floor, the Democratic Party will ensure that someone else will serve in his place during the next term. We do not need a Republican Lite senator. It is time for Democrats to stand for the principles of the sane and the middle class. Putting our kids at risk is neither.
Holding Democrats accountable must be our mantra going forward. After-all much that afflicts us today is not the sole job of Republicans but a failure of Democrats to stand for their values in practice and in principle. Make accountability begin today.
Guns and Gallegos
Will Texas colleges be forced to allow guns to be carried on campus?
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
April 9, 2011, 4:09PM
Will the state of Texas force colleges to allow guns on campus?
Universities don’t want them. The heads of many Texas colleges — most visibly, Francisco Cigarroa, chancellor of the University of Texas System – say that concealed weapons would make their campuses far more dangerous.
Faculty say they’d be uncomfortable flunking a student who packs heat. Mental health counselors warn of the danger of mixing guns with the stress and binge drinking that already plague students. Guns in classrooms and dorms, the counselors say, would surely lead to more suicides and accidental shootings.
Polls at the University of Texas, Texas A&M and Sam Houston State indicate that most students dislike the concept of guns on campus.
Campus police warn that it would be almost impossible, even for a conscientious student, to secure a gun in a dorm room. In a shootout, they say, they wouldn’t be able to tell a gun-packing bad guy from a gun-packing good one. And given that even police officers, trained to shoot under pressure, hit their targets less than 20 percent of the time, how much damage might a college gun carrier do? How many bystanders could be injured in crossfire?
Administrators say that allowing concealed weapons would cause their insurance costs to soar. According to state Sen. Rodney Ellis, just one Houston campus in his district estimates the increase at $1 million a year.
But as Senate Bill 354 makes the rounds of the state Legislature, it’s not universities that will decide the matter; it’s the Legislature. And maybe the most important vote in the matter will be cast on Monday by one of the Lege’s least predictable members: Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston.
Senate rules require that two-thirds of senators vote to bring any bill to a floor vote. That high bar – higher than the simple majority needed to pass a bill – is intended to filter out bad legislation, and to save the Senate valuable time.
At the moment, HB 354’s sponsor (Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio) believes that he’s lined up 20 votes, only one less than he needs. The 21st vote is likely to be Gallegos.
The senator, who usually supports gun bills, has waffled on this one. He began by supporting it, but after an outcry from students’ parents, university staff and board members, he withdrew his support.
Now he says he’s likely to support the bill if it’s given an amendment that would allow universities to opt out, banning guns campus by campus. It’s a compromise we could live with, too – but we don’t think it has a chance of becoming law.
By design, the Texas House is hotter-headed and less deliberative than the Senate. There, observers say, that amendment is likely to be stripped away, returning the bill to its current wretched state, in which colleges are forced to allow guns, like it or not.
Gallegos says that if that happens, he’ll vote against the bill when it comes back to the Senate.
But by then, it’ll most likely be too late. He’ll have allowed the bill onto the Senate floor, allowed the genie out of the bottle.
When the bill comes back to the Senate, Gallegos’ vote won’t be crucial anymore. At that point, even in its ugliest incarnation, the bill would only need a simple majority to pass.
Some votes matter more than others. This one matters a lot.
We urge Gallegos to do what a senator is supposed to do: To keep a bad bill from making its way into law, and to keep the Senate’s attention focused where it ought to be – on the budget crisis. At best, the guns-on-campus bill is a distraction. At worst, it could cost our colleges millions of dollars – and an unknown number of lives.
