Texas has passed a law allowing students under 21 to carry concealed handguns on college campuses. According to Allie Morris of the Dallas Morning News, this results from a policy shift by the Texas Department of Public Safety in January, which permits adults between 18 and 20 to carry handguns in public.
A federal judge ruled in August that a Texas law prohibiting adults under the age of twenty from possessing handguns was unconstitutional. The Office of Public Safety adjusted its policing practices in response to the court’s ruling. The agency announced in a memo dated January 10 that it would no longer be enforcing the Texas law that prohibited people under 21 from possessing handguns in public.
According to the report, the number of students eligible for “campus carry,” the legal right of Texans with concealed carry permits to bring firearms onto public university campuses, was expanded in 2016.
Since the rule change in January, over a hundred previously ineligible adults have applied for permit licenses from the Office of Safety. The percentage of student applicants among the 100 new total is unknown.
Emily Taylor, a Houston attorney and registered lobbyist for Gun Owners of America, told the Dallas Morning News that her office had received calls from dozens of people under 21 interested in applying for a gun permit since the law was changed.
She predicted that this would be the first of many Texas gun laws to be dismantled due to the spotlight on the Second Amendment.
