Campus Carry May Get New Life in Senate

A languishing measure requiring public universities and colleges to allow concealed handguns on campus may gain a fast track to passage under a plan to attach it as an amendment to another gun bill.

Lawmakers plan to attach so-called campus carry legislation as an amendment to House Bill 910 as it leaves the Senate, state Rep. Allen Fletcher, R-Cypress, confirmed Wednesday.

“I believe that [Sens. Craig] Estes and [Brian] Birdwell and [Lt. Gov. Dan] Patrick are going to pass it over here, send it back over to us and we’ll concur,” Fletcher, who is carrying the measure in the House, said as he walked out of the Senate chamber Wednesday. “It will be a lot easier than having to fight the fight over on the [House] floor.”

The House passed HB 910, which would allow license-holders to openly carry their handguns in shoulder or hip holsters, in mid-April. Fletcher had attempted to tack his campus carry measure to the bill during that debate. 

He agreed to pull it down under a threat of a procedural challenge from state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio — saying that he would allow the campus carry bill to make its way separately through the process. But since then, the bill has stalled in the House’s Calendars Committee, where it must earn enough votes to be set for consideration on the floor.

If campus carry is offered as an amendment to HB 910 in the Senate, it will likely have enough support to pass. The chamber has also passed its own versions of both bills.

Though the House has already approved HB 910, if the Senate returns the bill with a campus carry provision, House members must take a vote to concur with the change. 

Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, has said he will sign both measures if they reach his desk.