Texas’s Latest Great Idea: Give guns to drunk frat boys

From the Houston Chronicle:

The Senate today tentatively passed a controversial bill to allow college students who are at least 21 years old and licensed to carry concealed handguns to carry those weapons into campus buildings. The vote was 20-10 after about 90 minutes of debate.

The bill faces a final vote before it would go to the House, where a similar bill was declared dead last week by its author, Rep. Joe Driver, R-Garland. The Senate bill could be a way to revive the issue in the final weeks of the session.

Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, said he introduced the bill because of the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech, where he said victims were “picked off like sitting ducks.””I would feel personally guilty if I woke up one morning and read that something similar had occurred on a Texas campus,” he said.

The bill would apply to all universities and colleges in the state, but private institutions would be able to opt out.