A Deadly Combination

On June 13th, 2015, Governor Greg Abbott signed an open-carry bill passed by the state legislature at, none other than, a shooting range, and signed the campus-carry bill later that day. According to Abbott, open-carry on campuses will not pose any additional problems. Abbott finds open-carry to be a Constitutional right as an American. Even with the ceremony taking place the same day as a Dallas shooting, he stated, "it is no indication whatsoever of empowering people with their Second Amendment right," and that the protests against expanded gun rights were "unwarranted." Open-carry in Texas is risky. Open-carry on public campuses is terrifying. (The Texas Tribune)

As a student at the University of Texas, I can’t count how many UTPD campus alert texts I’ve received about gun threats on campus, and many in highly populated areas. Abbott believes that guns on campus will empower our citizens, and ensure safety, when really, we have enough guns making their way onto Texas campuses as it is. Let’s not forget the mass shooting from the UT tower in 1966, which reporter Pamela Colloff for the Texas Monthly believes to have “introduced the nation to the idea of mass murder in a public space,” with a total of 43 deaths. Since then, our country has experienced more than 250 school shootings. To me, that sounds like guns and schools are a deadly combination. 

In fact, college students are probably the last people who should have open access to guns, for reasons being stress over grades, pressure to achieve “success," high depression rates, high uses of drugs and alcohol, all of which lower a students ability to think coherently and increase the likelihood of making rash decisions. For instance, I received a text from UTPD in late April (during finals), warning students of a girl carrying a gun on the upper level of one of our main student buildings. We received an all clear text informing us that it was an attempt at suicide. Yes, under the new law, campuses are allowed to designate “gun-free” zones. However, what happens when a student is seen openly carrying a gun in a zone that is not within those boundaries, whom has violent intent? Will we not receive a warning UTPD text? How do the authorities, and ourselves, know that every student with a gun isn’t intending to use it, on themselves or their peers? And what are the chances that someone else carrying a gun is going to be around to protect themselves and others? 

We can’t know. And yes, in the Second Amendment the Constitution protects the Right to bear Arms. However, the times have changed. And school shootings have become much too prevalent. And our guns have grown more deadly. So I think, Governor Abbott, that students attend college to carry books, not guns. For a gun only teaches one thing, and that is to shoot. 

“Over a simple traffic stop … I don’t get it … I really don’t …”

I clicked on a conservative blog today because I wanted to find an article to disagree with. I came upon this one, however, from Big Jolly Politics, and was pleasantly surprised. Author Ed Hubbard confronts his fellow conservatives by saying that there's no way they can look into Sandra Bland's story, and not see that something is undeniably wrong. He goes on to argue that Republicans should embrace the #BlackLivesMatter movement as a "call to action" because they are the ones who can make a difference. It is the first time in, maybe forever, that I have heard a Republican passionately state that black lives matter without a quickly added qualifying statement.

As evidence, he provides two videos of Sandra's arrest, and emphatically encourages his readers to watch them without judgement. He then provides an argument on why now is the time to act. Up to this point, I loved everything he said. He then makes a slightly belittling statement about the "progressive ideas" of the leaders of the movement, and the conservative's ability to "seize this moment to engage in a debate over real public actions and private actions that will address the problems of under-education, underemployment, and over-incarceration in African-American communities." He then doubles down on his argument stating that "progressive policies have perpetuated the problems experienced by black mean and women in this country." The problem with this argument is that he doesn't provide any evidence of how progressives caused the issues at hand, or exactly how Republicans are the answer.  

This article is almost hitting the nail on the head. Almost. While he supports the phrase "black lives matter", he neglects to hear the voices in the movement who are directly affected. All in all, I respect this mans bravery in posting something so at odds with the typical conservative blog post. Unfortunately, he lost me with his bold claim against progressives with zero backing. 

GOP headed by... Trump??

We all know Trump is an idiot... But do we? From the looks of the GOP polls it seems like he's the genius and we're the idiots. Out of 16 Republican candidates, Trump is taking the lead. Based on his slanderous remarks on Mexicans and John McCain's hero status, you'd think he would be riding the bottom half at least. However, while the left wingers find him comical, to the conservative party, he's no joke. And the Republican candidates are not exactly catching the drift. For example, commentator Froma Harrop states in her My San Antonio article that not backing the immigration reform has Republican candidates in trouble. Sadly, the radical(*cough* racist) republicans heard opportunity knocking through Trump’s absurd accusations, and though he lost some followers with his McCain comment, he still held onto many for his audacity. Now that he’s got the popularity vote, it’s up to the rest of the GOP to bring him back down. See, without their backing of the immigration reform, Trump is now on a whole other political platform, AND they just lost half of their conservative followers to Trump. Now, he could consider switching over to third-party candidacy, which would pull even more support out from under them. 

Now I lean pretty liberal on most issues, and you can see me dead before you see me vote Trump for President. However, I will say Froma is not wrong. While I am all for our government equally and legally integrating immigrated latinos into our schools, job markets, and communities, I do think a stronger immigration system is direly necessary. Before I even started college I was hearing all the horror stories of students paying hundreds of thousands for a degree that only gave them a world of brutal competition and scarce job openings. Our modern medicine is growing more and more potent, which means longer lifespans. Texas economy is much more affordable than others, which is drawing many US citizens here, not including the thousands of now undocumented citizens. For example, the population of Austin, Texas alone grew by 2.9 percent from 2013-2104. It would be nice to imagine us being one big happy family here, but I just don’t think it’s possible without some major economic. With less people, maybe we could raise minimum wage and get more unemployed citizens working. As From a said, Americans have a right to an orderly immigration program. I think stricter immigration regulation and financial and educational equality and legality among currently undocumented citizens would do Texas, and our country a lot of good. 

What Will it Take?

I almost didn't choose this article from Off The Kuff to write about. I saw a black face, and immediately knew what it was about. How sad is that? 

I decided that yes, it isn't fun to keep reading the same story in the news. It's heartbreaking.But it is even more excruciating for those who are in fear of these hate crimes happening to them. This subject is incredibly relevant right now, and this story is a tragedy. 

On July 17th, a woman named Sandra Bland was allegedly pulled out of her car window and thrown to the ground, where she was then arrested for not using her turn signal when switching lanes. Even more ironically, this all went down outside of a church. She later died of asphyxiation in her jail cell. Despite the controversy over her death being a suicide or not, I don't think her death is the point Sandra would make with this post. 

I have heard some people argue that black people are being shot just as much as white people or any other race. For some reason, the idea that a Prairie View A&M graduate on her way to start her new university job deserved to be aggressively handled, and moreover arrested for not using a signal to change lanes, just doesn't click in my mind. In fact, I am experiencing the same mental process as with the deaths in other recent news; the reasoning behind it is not nearly reason enough. It is inexcusable for our supposed "protectors" to be walk around with kill toys that they think they can fire whenever they feel like it. This article should be read because even while she was being shoved into a police car, Sandra Bland shouted to a bystander filming, "Thank you for recording! Thank you!"