Texans debate allowing legal firearms on campus

Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas

Texas already lets lawmakers bring guns into the Capitol. And the governor sometimes jogs with a loaded pistol. But should people be allowed to carry concealed weapons onto college campuses?

Gun advocates argue that doing so could help put a quick end to threats such as the one posed by a University of Texas student who fired several rounds from an assault rifle Tuesday before killing himself.

College buildings in Texas are gun-free zones. But that did not stop Colton Tooley from darting along a street near the university’s clock tower Tuesday, shooting off an AK-47. He then entered a library and shot himself. No one else was hurt.

Police had no evidence Tooley was targeting anyone, but there was plenty of discussion Wednesday about how much worse the bloodshed could have been — and how to ensure that scenario never happens.