Call Senator Ogden NOW!!!

[txsccc]

Earlier today, Senator Steve Ogden (our State Senator for Bryan/College Station) said on the floor of the Texas Senate that he doesn’t believe Aggies want campus carry at Texas A&M.

We need you to tell him that he’s wrong.

We need you to tell him through every avenue available (phone, fax, email, and in person).

And we need you to tell him NOW!

First, here’s what he said:

1. He said that students, faculty, and staff at A&M don’t want campus carry.

2. He said there’s no evidence that allowing concealed carry on campus will lower the crime rates on college campuses (completely ignoring the fact that concealed carry is about personal security, not campus security).

3. He said that allowing concealed carry by individuals over the age of 21 would be unfair to younger students (suggesting that license holders on college campuses should be denied the same measure of personal protection they’re allowed virtually everywhere else, out of some bizarre sense of equality not enforced anywhere else).

Now, here’s what you need to do:

1. Call his office (512-463-0105). I don’t care if you’ve already called a hundred times this month, and I don’t care if you just called yesterday—this time you’re calling to COMPLAIN about what he said on the floor of the Senate. Be sure to mention your affiliation with A&M.

2. Send him a fax (512-463-5713). As always, FaxZero.com lets you send two free faxes per day from your web browser. If you’ve already sent the fax we asked you to send yesterday (explaining why you support campus carry), write a new one complaining about what he said on the floor of the Senate. If you haven’t sent the fax we asked you to send yesterday, write it and then add your complaints about what he said on the floor of the senate. Be sure to mention your affiliation with A&M, and be sure to include your phone number and LOCAL address.

3. Copy the message you sent as a fax, and send it to these four email addresses. Be sure to mention your affiliation with A&M, and be sure to include your phone number and LOCAL address:

steve.ogden@senate.state.tx.us
valerie.brak@senate.state.tx.us
betty.cotte@senate.state.tx.us
constance.allison@senate.state.tx.us

4. Forward this message to any and all Aggies who support this cause. You can post it on Facebook pages, message boards, whatever.

5. Join one of the groups going tomorrow to visit either Senator Ogden’s Capitol office in Austin or his district office here in Bryan/College Station (contact Chase Jennings or Madison Welch for details).

Let’s let Senator Ogden know how we really feel about this issue!

--TAMU SCCC

[Charles L. Cotton]

Ogden is a "no" vote and nothing is going to change it. Facts don't matter to him anymore than it did with employer parking lots last session.

People may as well call Senators Ellis and West; it's a waste of time and effort. Spend it calling senators we have to keep on board, including Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa.

Chas.

[baldeagle]

Then we should work to un-elect him.

[Charles L. Cotton]

Then we should work to un-elect him.

He wasn't supposed to run for reelection, but he lied about that too. Unfortunately, he's in a safe district.

Chas.

[baldeagle]

He's not safe from a Republican challenger.

[A-R]

Perceived waste of time or not, Sen. Ogden has been my state senator for number of years - first when I lived/worked in the Bryan-College Station area and now again since I've lived in Cedar Park. I've always voted for the man, assuming he was someone who could be counted on to do what was right for Texans on 2nd Amendment issues. I just called his office and voiced my displeasure and told the lady on the phone that this is "one of those issues" and his vote against it is a dealbreaker for me and that this issue alone would be enough to convince me to vote against him in the future.

She thanked me for the call, but seemed to indicate what Charles has indicated that Sen. Ogden's mind is made up.

[baldeagle]

I just sent this to Ogden.

Senator Ogden, I watched your discussion of SB 354 on the Senate floor today. I have to agree with you. I can't see why the legislature has chosen to restrict the rights of CHL holders to carry in any place. They should be able to carry in elementary schools, high schools and colleges as well as sporting events. Perhaps you could submit a bill in the next session to remove those restrictions?

I also don't understand why private colleges are allowed to opt out. After all, they also get our tax dollars for grants, scholarships and other purposes. I think they should have to comply with the same restrictions, rules and regulations that the public schools do. But I know politics is all about compromise, so I'm sure someone's vote in favor requires that compromise.

I confess I was a little confused by your attempts to tie the present restrictions on legal carry to SB 354. All of the present restrictions are part of the Texas Penal Code, which I'm sure you know were passed into law by the legislature.

I work at a public university in Texas. I am a CHL holder. I can't for the life of me understand why I have to remove my weapon and holster simply because I've arrived at my office. I can't understand why the legislature thinks I should be allowed to defend my life in some places but not in others.

Please vote to suspend the rules on Monday, Senator. The bill deserves a hearing and a vote from the full Senate and should not be the casualty of political games.

[A-R]

Letter I just sent to the Senator:

Senator Ogden,

I called and left a message with one of your Austin staffers yesterday to voice my strong displeasure with your comments about Senate Bill 354 to allow licensed Texans to carry concealed handguns on public university and college campuses. But I feel so strongly about this issue that I felt the need to write you as well.

I firmly believe that law-abiding citizens should be able to legally carry any reasonable means of self defense with them anywhere they go within this great state. College campuses should be no exception. My reason is simple: without a reasonable NEED to prohibit a law-abiding citizen's rights, the people should be free to exercise their rights.

But even someone who sees the carrying of weapons as privilege instead of a right, must surely understand the illogic of prohibiting this supposed privilege in certain areas but not others. A "gun-free zone" like a Texas college campus ONLY prevents law-abiding citizens from possessing a gun. Is it not obvious to you that someone who is willing to violate laws against harmful USE of a gun will have no problems also violating a law against POSSESSION of a gun in a place that is "gun free" in name only?

This is a contentious issue, and people who are against the idea of guns on campus have come up with a plethora of red herrings and other supposed reasons why guns should continue to be banned on campuses. But I've yet to hear any of them explain how preventing lawfully possessed guns on campus prevents any crime, other than hypothetical accidents and heat-of-the-moment crimes that so far have not occured with increased frequency elsewhere in our great state in the 16 years since the CHL law went into effect. At the heart of the anti-campus carry argument is the simple truth that many people are uncomfortable with the idea of average citizens possessing weapons. They get nervous thinking their classmate, student, teacher may have a gun hidden on them somewhere. Universities worry about liability and insurance rates. Some (but not all) campus police worry how they will discern a "real bad guy" from a CHL holder in a Virginia Tech-type of tragedy.

But these are simply unwarranted fears based on ignorance and prejudice. A person legally carrying a gun is LESS likely to spontaneously cause harm than someone who is illegally carrying a gun. Right now only people who are illegally carrying guns are on campus. Liability and insurance concerns can be addressed by the legislature. Police - in the rare instance of a mass shooting - can utilize advanced training they should all be receiving already.

None of these fears outweigh the very real fear of a college student or professor or simply someone visiting a campus becoming a helpless victim of violent crime. This issue is only tangentally about "campus safety" and preventing "another Virginia Tech". The real issue here is personal self defense. Why should I, or my daughter, or anyone's son, daughter, father, mother, husband, wife be forced into helplessness against criminals simply because they wish to enter a college building?

I'll leave you with one very powerful example of a Nevada college student named Amanda Collins. Feel free to Google her story for all the relevant details, but in brief - she was raped in a campus parking garage. The same person who raped her later raped two other women, killing one of them. Ms. Collins has a concealed handgun license in her state but was prohibited from carrying her self-defense weapon on campus. Thus she was defenseless. She could have stopped this rapist with her gun, preventing herself and two other young women and their families from needless suffering. But the law forced her to be a victim simply because she was a student.

Senator Ogden, I have been your constituent for a number of years - first in the Bryan-College Station area then later returning to your district a few years ago when I moved with my family to the Cedar Park area. I have always voted for you, believing you to be a reasonable conservative voice who would do what is right for Texans.

But sir, this issue means A LOT to me. And your continued failure to expand the rights of licensed, law-abiding Texans to defend themselves in all parts of our great state (including employer parking lots) will regretably force me to withdraw my support for you come the next election.

I sincerely hope you will change your mind on this issue, vote your conscience, and vote FOR the rights of all Texans to defend themselves from violent crime.

Thank you for your time.

[J.R.@A&M]

I'm including an Ellis/Ogden rebuttal in my general (and polite) messages to other Senators. Somebody tell me if they think this will turn off other Senators.

Senator X, I am writing as a private citizen/resident/votor to respectfully ask your vote for suspension of Senate rules to allow Senator Wentworth's bill to be debated and voted on by the full Senate.
As Sen. Wentworth noted, there has been a lot of opposition to this bill. The arguments of the opposition, as repeated yesterday by some of your Senate colleagues, are really arguments against concealed carry in general. Sen. Ellis, for example, keeps harping on potentially irresponsible, drunken behavior on the part of students. If that were true, then we should have seen it over the last fifteen years since 21 year olds in college towns have possessed CHLs. All of the fears Sen. Ellis raises are possible (in fact, more likely) off campus. But we have seen none of that behavior associated with CHL holders in college towns. The argument has no merit, and is simply fear mongering. When Sen. Ellis calls campus carry “bad policy” he is really impugning the existing Texas CHL law, which is a demonstrably good policy.

Besides, if you can follow Sen. Ogden's twisted logic, there allegedly aren't enough potential CHL holders to matter, right? For what it’s worth, this Aggie professor *does* have his CHL and **does ** support campus carry for the sake of extending individual liberty and personal security. Sen. Ogden’s requirement that campus carry pass some sort of the collective security test is baffling. I don’t own a fire extinguisher at home in order to make my neighborhood safer. I own a fire extinguisher to make MY home safer. If the neighborhood benefits from my stopping a fire in my house, so much the better.

The point is, as Sen. Wentworth stated, SB 354 is simply extending the range of legal carry by current CHL holders. That's it. Since past and current 20-something CHL holders have not evidenced drunken gun-play, accidental discharges, vigilante bravado, or confusing law enforcement outside of campus buildings, there is no reason to think they will do so inside campus buildings. Thanks for listening.

[RPB]

Rather than just Ogden, I contacted all, especially the Womens (emphasis Amanda Collins) .... tried to personalize each a bit, and for El Paso Senator, included a link to the Demonstration News coverage at UTEP.

Showed the lawyer group about foreseeability in Negligence cases at Virginia Tech (2002 report, 2006 article, 2007 massacre, taxpayers paying MILLIONS in settlements and fines 2007-2011 and still lawsuits pending.

http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/82 ... 110411.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
REGULAR ORDER OF BUSINESS

Monday

April 11, 2011
SENATE BILLS
(Second Reading)

far down

SB 1545 (LC) Patrick/ et al.

Relating to the liability of a volunteer health care practitioner who conducts a physical examination or medical screening of a student athlete.

SB 354 (CS) Wentworth/ Birdwell/ Carona/ Deuell/ Eltife/ et al.

Relating to the carrying of concealed handguns on the campuses of and certain other locations associated with institutions of higher education.

SB 897 (LC) Hegar

Relating to fishing tournament fraud; providing penalties.

[RPB]

I think it will leave the Senate Mon and head to the House .... just gotta feelin'

I personalized a bit, to the Lady Senators, I talked about Amanda Collins, to the men I stressed the grad student at Virginia Tech who wrote an article in 2006, a year prior to the massacre as well as Amanda's story ...

Point:

Point 1) It's foreseeable that a sign nor policy stops criminals, but actually attracts them.
Point 2) V.T review panel was, is and will be unbelievably stoooopid. That's why taxpayers paid millions in damages so far, and are continuing to pay.

(I didn't say it that way, I said it better.

[A-R]

I know I know



But because he is "my senator" I've been faxing Sen. Ogden twice a day. This morning I called and had a lengthy chat with the courteous woman who answered the phone. I told her after watching the entirety of Sen. Ogden's back-n-forth with Sen. Wentworth from last week, that I was honestly confused whether the senator was against this bill because he is against the idea of campus carry or he because he doesn't think this bill goes far enough (the "only a few will carry, thus campus safety is not improved" angle).

She told me she believes his true motivation is a desire for "local control" of this issue. He wants each university (even public universities) to be given the ability to "opt out". I explained to her that this would be no different from the status quo in which universities can "opt in" (even though none of them do so), and further pointed out to her (possibly enlightening her to something she did not know) that NO public entity in Texas subordinate to the state itself has any power to make laws concerning the carrying of weapons. So what makes universities so special that they deserve "local control" that even city councils and county commissioners do not have?

Again, I realize I'm likely beating a dead horse. But I'm just hoping that somehow it will be easier to move a Republican off this "opt out" nonsense than a Democrat.

[blue]

[quote="austinrealtor"]
NO public entity in Texas subordinate to the state itself has any power to make laws concerning the carrying of weapons. So what makes universities so special that they deserve "local control" that even city councils and county commissioners do not have?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-That is THE big question - Why are schools 'better than' citys, countys, mayors, etc.???


In business - if the training dept. ran around over ruling the stockholders and upper management, they would not be around long!

I believe that Utah had a problem with the schools until the State of Utah had had enought and layed down the LAW!

Perhaps someday TX Govn. will stand up for their citizens.

[A-R]

Ogden's Austin office fax machine has been down all afternoon. Hopefully it melted down from all the pro SB 354 faxes he's been receiving.

Or maybe they just blocked my particular fax number ... I think I've faxed him 12 times in the last 3 days

[tacticool]

If it doesn't get to the floor tomorrow, I'm going to start faxing every single one of them and ask if they also think schools should be able to opt out of allowing Black students.

I need to get my money worth for the fax service.