Guns in College Classrooms Bill

The blog post by John Woods analyzing the newly introduced “Guns in College Classrooms” bill highlights the extremely disconcerting process of legislation.  This piece of legislation, introduced by chairman Joe Pickett, a Democrat from El Paso, TX, will ultimately force colleges and universities to allow students to carry assault weapons in classrooms.  What is even more outlandish than the bill proposal itself is the fact that the hearing for the bill is happening during spring break, a time when most students are either out of the state or not politically and or socially engaged on campus. The author argues that this shows an extreme lack in judgment on the behalf of the bill proponents and an unfair policy process in general.  He also argues that this type of divisive scheduling, specifically scheduling hearings during school recesses, has happened in the past.  It is an unsustainable and non-democratic method of passing pieces of legislation that otherwise might not be passed.

The author’s intended audience is the general public, but he resonates especially with students who attend colleges and universities in the state of Texas.  His prerogative and passion behind this blog post is apparent from the beginning of the post.  He lost his girlfriend during the Virginia Tech massacre six years ago, and gun control is a very heated issue for him.  The author communicates and advocates for various organizations such as the Virginia Tech Review Panel and Gun-Free Schools of Texas.  He is also supporting other political solutions such as universal background checks in place of the newly introduced bill.  I sincerely hope that his post brings about awareness to this issue and facilitates policy reform.