The Campus Carry Law in Texas: Rights and (In)Security in an Armed Campus

This presentation discusses an Academy of Finland-funded research project that studied the implications of the Texas state “Campus Carry” gun legislation (SB 11) at The University of Texas at Austin. The Campus Carry law has multiple practical and theoretical ramifications for communities’ and individuals’ senses of security and insecurity, and it is also linked to broader assumptions about constitutional rights. A central tension related to extending the Second Amendment to the context of campuses has to do with ideological assumptions about individual rights and the institutional authority to regulate firearms without infringing on the Constitution. The examination probes the university community’s negotiation of rights after the implementation of the law within various spatial contexts on campus. In particular, the question of gun rights/restriction is interpreted through notions of freedom, privacy, and agency in public, semi-public, and private space.