New Task Force Out and About

21.  What is it but a number right? No, it is the age that most Americans cherish because they are finally allowed to drink legally.  The key word here is LEGALLY.  If you are between 15 and 20 you have most likely drank illegally before.  Since this is a reoccurring situation, the Travis County Police Department has taken it upon themselves to create a special task force to take down underage drinking.  Yes, I guess it sounds like a good idea in theory.  Why wouldn’t we want to stop an illegal act from taking part? The Police Department looks at this as a way to decrease the amount of deaths caused by drunken driving accidents.  Here’s the kicker though, it isn’t just underage people that are drinking and driving.  Many people that are “of age” drink and drive.  So why is the task force only focusing on high school students? When researching this “task force”, they only mention high school students drinking and that they are the main problem. 

If that was the case then why is 6^th street swarming with this new task force?  Last time I checked, high school students weren’t partying downtown.  I will be the first to say, yes if you are not younger than 21 drinking anywhere, it is illegal, and so I understand when people receive tickets.  My main issue is, why is this our Police Department’s main issue to fight? We have so many other things going on in our city that need to be reevaluated and are of a higher importance.  What about the homeless problem? Could we get a task force to try to help figure out ways to help these people get back on their feet, away from drugs, and finding new jobs? Instead, we are filling up the court houses with petty drinking cases.  I am sorry, like I said, I understand that drinking underage is illegal, but to create a task force to take on this issue is a little over the top.  If you want to give people tickets for drinking and driving that is a more legitimate reason, but for someone who is taking a bus/cab and not harming anyone, why is it worth it to put that type of case in a court room.  Sounds like a waste of time to me.  

-Kelsey Scott 

Concealed Handguns on Campus. Go For It.

I have been reading through my classmate’s blogs and one stood out that I felt the urge to comment on.  The blog, A Student’s Perspective had a post called, Not Anti-Gun, Just Practical.  Throughout this post the author continually brought up that she was in support of people having guns, but not in support of having a concealed hand gun on campus.  For those of you who don’t know, there has been a bill that was passed by Senate and heading to the floor allowing concealed hand guns on college campuses.  This bill has caused quite the uproar because have been so many people against it and so many people for it.  Lura C. has been one of the people against it.  Her reasons, I get them, but they aren’t completely well thought out. 

First of all, let’s be honest and realize that if someone wants to carry a handgun on campus, they are going to whether there is a law allowing them or not.  In one of my criminal justice classes a few weeks ago this issue was actually brought up.  From students in my class, at least 10 of the 100 people there had said that they either had taken their gun with them on campus before or knew someone who carried one daily.  That right there shows that people are going to do what they want to do, so why not just allow this.  I mean is someone arming themselves for safety purposes really a crime? No.  We don’t need any more worthless cases crowding up our court systems.  

I understand Lura’s concern when it comes to people being intoxicated and having a gun on them, but the thing is how many of us go downtown on a weekend? Concealed hand guns are allowed there and we aren’t freaking out about it.  There aren’t people being shot each week.  I mean, yes, it makes sense to be worried if there was some drunk idiot roaming around with a handgun, but that already happens, so why wouldn’t you want to arm yourself for safety reasons and be prepared.  Wouldn’t you want a handgun to even the playing field if someone was coming at you?

Also, something to note about the handgun license in general is that you have to be 21 to have one.  Therefore, there will only be juniors and seniors carrying around these handguns.  You’re worried about maturity levels, I know, not everyone can handle that responsibility. The only thing is though, is we have to hope that as people do grow older, they also mature.  Something to possibly suggest would be that if this bill does pass, they should have certain qualifications be added to the concealed handgun license.  They should maybe make people take classes a few times a year to make sure that they can actually use their gun accurately.  Also, they should make them take a test twice a year on their accuracy, and if it doesn’t score a certain percentile then they get their license revoked.  There are many different things that the government could do to make sure that the people receiving their concealed handgun license are capable of having it, therefore if they brought it onto a campus, it wouldn’t be a catastrophe. 

Overall, I do see where you are coming from; I just know that unfortunately, people are going to do what they want.  It is as plain and simple as that.  You probably know people that carry a gun to school in case something were to happen.  I mean, I go to UT and when the shooting happened here where the boy brought a gun into the library there was mass chaos.  Now I know the kid ended up shooting himself and not anyone else, but if he was about to shoot someone, then maybe it could’ve been prevented.  So, as I am sure you’ve come to the realization that I support the bill, so how does everyone else feel about the issue? 

-Kelsey Scott