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[h=1]Campus Carry And Keg Parties: Lethal Combination In Texas[/h]
BY FRANK WILKINSON , Investor's Business Daily
College campuses provide near-perfect laboratories in which to observe the primordial chemistry among testosterone-rich young men, sexual competition, peer pressure, illicit drugs and rivers of flowing alcohol.
Now, courtesy of the Texas legislature, the Lone Star State will offer students the chance to experience all that with a twist: concealed firearms in campus buildings.
Over the weekend, Texas legislators passed a bill to allow those ages 21 and over to carry concealed firearms in dorms and campus buildings. Gov. Greg Abbott has said he will sign it into law.
While private colleges will not have to comply with the law, the state's 104 public institutions of higher education, with about 1.3 million students, will be required to allow "campus carry" for those with permits.
Concealed-carry supporters rightly point out that this is simply an expansion of campus gun rights from the outside to the indoors; concealed carry was already legal on campus grounds. Of course, what neither the legislators nor anyone else knows is what happens when a state government goes to great lengths to normalize gun carrying in virtually every conceivable location and situation.
A bill allowing statewide open carry of handguns was also passed last week, leading the way to open carry of handguns on public thoroughfares, on campus and off. Based on the legislators' actions, it's impossible to conclude that they are anything but enthusiastic about the prospect of gun-toting upperclassmen.
Drink And Shoot
A timely research paper on firearms and alcohol, published online April 30, suggests that perhaps they shouldn't be.
"Acute and chronic alcohol misuse is positively associated with firearm ownership, risk behaviors involving firearms, and risk for perpetrating both interpersonal and self-directed firearm violence," states the paper, by veteran researcher Garen Wintemute of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California at Davis.
"In an average month, an estimated 8.9 million to 11.7 million firearm owners binge drink. For men, deaths from alcohol-related firearm violence equal those from alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes."
In effect, drunk shooting among men is as lethal a problem as drunk driving.
"This is true even though alcohol involvement is underestimated in fatal violence relative to motor vehicle crashes."
Now, think of a demographic group that might be especially prone to binge drinking and general alcohol abuse.
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism at the National Institutes of Health, roughly four in five college students drink alcohol, and "about half of college students who drink, also consume alcohol through binge drinking."
BY FRANK WILKINSON , Investor's Business Daily
College campuses provide near-perfect laboratories in which to observe the primordial chemistry among testosterone-rich young men, sexual competition, peer pressure, illicit drugs and rivers of flowing alcohol.
Now, courtesy of the Texas legislature, the Lone Star State will offer students the chance to experience all that with a twist: concealed firearms in campus buildings.
Over the weekend, Texas legislators passed a bill to allow those ages 21 and over to carry concealed firearms in dorms and campus buildings. Gov. Greg Abbott has said he will sign it into law.
While private colleges will not have to comply with the law, the state's 104 public institutions of higher education, with about 1.3 million students, will be required to allow "campus carry" for those with permits.
Concealed-carry supporters rightly point out that this is simply an expansion of campus gun rights from the outside to the indoors; concealed carry was already legal on campus grounds. Of course, what neither the legislators nor anyone else knows is what happens when a state government goes to great lengths to normalize gun carrying in virtually every conceivable location and situation.
A bill allowing statewide open carry of handguns was also passed last week, leading the way to open carry of handguns on public thoroughfares, on campus and off. Based on the legislators' actions, it's impossible to conclude that they are anything but enthusiastic about the prospect of gun-toting upperclassmen.
Drink And Shoot
A timely research paper on firearms and alcohol, published online April 30, suggests that perhaps they shouldn't be.
"Acute and chronic alcohol misuse is positively associated with firearm ownership, risk behaviors involving firearms, and risk for perpetrating both interpersonal and self-directed firearm violence," states the paper, by veteran researcher Garen Wintemute of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California at Davis.
"In an average month, an estimated 8.9 million to 11.7 million firearm owners binge drink. For men, deaths from alcohol-related firearm violence equal those from alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes."
In effect, drunk shooting among men is as lethal a problem as drunk driving.
"This is true even though alcohol involvement is underestimated in fatal violence relative to motor vehicle crashes."
Now, think of a demographic group that might be especially prone to binge drinking and general alcohol abuse.
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism at the National Institutes of Health, roughly four in five college students drink alcohol, and "about half of college students who drink, also consume alcohol through binge drinking."
