University of Texas Professors Sue School To Block Gun 'Campus Carry' Law From Taking Effect

Austin, TX — Three professors at the University of Texas at Austin filed suit on Wednesday to prevent the open carry of guns on campus ahead of the Aug. 1 implementation of a new Texas law allowing people to bring firearms to school grounds, according to a published report.

The Texas Tribune reports the basis of the professors' lawsuit is that by allowing guns on campus — under the so-called "campus carry" law championed by GOP lawmakers — the university would be forced to impose "...overly solicitous, dangerously experimental gun policies..." in violation of the the Second Amendment.

The professors filing the litigation are Jennifer Lynn Glass, Lisa Moore and Mia Carter, the Tribune reported. They are asking a federal judge for an injunction blocking the new law before it takes effect Aug. 1.

The second prong of their suit centers on the First Amendment: Given the professors' courses involving gay rights and abortion, the specter of guns on campus would stifle class discussion — in violation of the ideals of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, they claim.

The lawsuit follows other professors' previous vows to sue the university if their complaints about the imminent law weren't adequately addressed. Last year, as the Houston Chronicle reported, Gun-Free UT, a group mainly composed of professors railing against the new law, threatened to sue if UT President Gregory Fenves didn't hold a public comment period after submitting his plan in December to comply with "campus carry."

Fenves reluctantly submitted the plan to allow guns on school grounds while voicing his opposition to the idea. The "campus carry" law is something of a companion to "open carry" legislation passed Jan. 1, allowing gun owners to walk around publicly with holstered guns.

But like "campus carry," a growing chorus of opponents to allowing the unfettered access to guns grew in response to the Republican-led "open carry" measure. It's difficult to find any public place that will allow licensed gun owners to sport their weaponry while walking about inside their premises, and businesses — retailer HEB among the most prominent — are able to opt out of the law so long as they advertise their prohibition with specially made signs fronting their enterprises.

Private colleges also are able to opt out of the upcoming "campus carry" law, and many — if not most — private colleges in Texas have already deemed guns off limits on campus regardless of the law set to take effect soon that would have otherwise allow them.

However, public universities are unable to similarly opt out because they receive state funding to subsist. Short of being able to opt out entirely, Fenves issued a set of recommendations ahead of allowing guns that would prevent them in dorms, labs and other sensitive areas.

But the state's attorney general, Ken Paxton, issued a rebuke of such limitations, essentially declaring that banning guns in certain parts of a university campus would be tantamount to banning them outright.

In December, students and professors gathered en masse to protest "campus carry," also to counter-protest a planned demonstration of a mock school shooting by gun aficionados making the case for having an abundance of guns on school grounds.

By February, the threat of "campus carry" claimed a notable casualty. The prospect of UT becoming a "campus carry" university prompted the noted dean of the School of Architecture, Frederick L. Steiner, to resign while attributing the new law as the main reason for his departure.

The professors' lawsuit this week is the latest skirmish in the battle over "campus carry" as its date of implementation looms. Yet the fight is just getting started, and it's already clear that it's going to be a long, hot summer.

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