AUSTIN, Texas— Concealed handguns will be allowed in University of Texas classrooms but generally banned from dorms under rules begrudgingly approved Wednesday by the school’s president, whose hand was forced by a new state law.
Like many who study or work at the school in liberal Austin, President Greg Fenves opposes allowing guns on the roughly 50,000-student campus. Texas’ universities had been gun-free zones under the state’s previous concealed handgun laws, but the Republican-dominated Legislature voted last year to force public universities to allow license holders to bring their guns to campus starting Aug. 1.
“I do not believe handguns belong on a university campus, so this decision has been the greatest challenge of my presidency to date,” Fenves said in announcing his decision to adopt rules recommended by a campus study group in December.
Gun-rights activists insist the right to have weapons on campus falls under the Second Amendment and they call it a critical self-defense measure.
