Last night my wife and I went to an awards banquet for her job. One of the guests, my State Senator Representative Brian Birdwell. His State Senate link is here:
http://www.birdwell.senate.state.tx.us/Dist22.htm#Press
I had been wanting to speak with him since he is co-author of SB 11 and while waiting in line for cake ( there is always time for cake) I got the chance to speak with him for a few minutes. He is very engaging and was open to talking about the Campus Carry law. He explained a few things that I hadn't thought about regarding allowing each University set their restricted/prohibited areas. He said that since all college are unique in the types of areas, where guns would not be allowed for safety reasons, such as laboratories where no metal is allowed for example, if the Legislature tried to implement blanket policies for each university, not only would the bill be so thick it would take a forklift to carry it, there would still be areas that would change at some universities, because of research grants, adding or dropping curriculum etc. I asked him if he had seen the University of Houston's draft for compliance and he said that he hadn't. I explained that the draft I read, used the fact that most of their buildings had children present at different times, that they were going to be prohibited areas. He said that he would look at it and that he had seen several other universities proposals and that they ( the bills authors) were keeping up with them and were going to offer suggested changes, if the plans were not up to the intent and letter of the law.
I told him that I was a member of this forum, and that it had been a bone of contention in our discussions, and he said to be patient that most of the college administrators were not even familiar with the CHL laws and that it will take some time to get it all worked out. I thoroughly enjoyed my talk with Senator Birdwell, we also discussed my son's upcoming Eagle Scout ceremony and he said he would definitely send a letter of congratulations, and that if he is available he would like to attend.
He also had kind words for Charles Cotton, not only regarding recent legislation but his assistance with other issues. If you have the time take a look at Senator Birdwell's Bio page. He is a true patriot and I am proud to call him "My" Senator
