Daily Skiff

The April 7, 2009, article "Students start petition against concealed-gun bill," ends by stating that University of Texas at Austin sophomore Jackie Mintz, one of the two students who put together the petition, ­said she doesn't mind that people carry guns as long as she has the choice to avoid places where guns can be carried. But this wouldn't be the case on a college campus, she said.

"I don't have a choice," Mintz said. "I have to sit in my English class if I want to pass the class and graduate."

In light of the revelation earlier in the article that Mintz found out about the bill at the Texas Capitol, where she works as an intern, there is more than a little irony to her argument about choosing to avoid the places where guns are allowed. Concealed handgun license holders are allowed to carry their handguns in the Texas Capitol. In fact, state law even prohibits legislators from restricting "concealed carry" in their Texas Capitol offices.

Do Mintz and Jordan Adair, the petition's coauthor, also avoid movie theaters, grocery stores, shopping malls, restaurants, churches, banks, and all of the other places where concealed carry is allowed in the state of Texas? Or are they - and the students upon whose fears their petition plays - simply ignorant to the fact that licensed concealed carry is currently allowed in locations without metal detectors in the state of Texas?

W. Scott Lewis, representative of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus

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