It’s the kind of scenario he’s imagined since April 2007, when he was a student at Virginia Tech and his girlfriend and several other people he knew were gunned down in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
There were times when Woods thought to himself that maybe he should get a gun.
“Then I learned pretty fast that wouldn’t solve anything,” said Woods, who is now a graduate student at UT. “The idea that somebody could stop a school shooting with a gun is impossible. It’s reactive, not preventative.”
Today, Woods is among the leaders in a fight against bills in the Texas Legislature that would allow licensed concealed gun carriers to bring their weapons to school.
The House version of the bill, sponsored by Rep. Joe Driver, a Garland Republican, is scheduled for a public hearing today in the Public Safety Committee.
Supporters say the bills would do two things: protect the rights of those licensed to carry concealed weapons, and help prevent another massacre on the scale of what happened at Virginia Tech and another shooting last year at Northern Illinois University.
Texas issued 73,090 licenses in fiscal year 2008. The state requires applicants pass a training course, pass a criminal background check and be at least 21 years old. Texas campuses are gun-free zones.
“These are individuals who are already licensed and allowed to carry weapons. What marks the imaginary line of college campuses?” said Katie Kasprzak, a recent Texas State University graduate and spokeswoman for Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, a group that claims more than 37,000 members.
Kasprzak has a concealed weapons license. If another campus shooting started, “Would you rather sit and just take shot for shot or would you rather have a chance to fight back?” she said.
At Virginia Tech, 32 people were gunned down before the shooter killed himself. The gunman at Northern Illinois killed five and wounded 18.
Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, sponsor of the Senate bill, said students, faculty and staff are “sitting ducks” if someone starts blasting.
“I have no desire to wake up one morning and read in the newspaper, or hear on the radio, or watch on television a news report that 32 Texas college students were gunned down like sitting ducks by some deranged gunman,” Wentworth said.
Attempts to lift campus gun bans have failed across the country.
According to the Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence, bills have been filed in 18 states since 2008 and all have failed, although a few are trying again. Texas is one of seven states currently considering legislation.
Kasprzak said supporters hope Texas will change the trend. The Lone Star State, which is often viewed around the country as being more accepting of guns, could be the bellcow that gets other states to follow its lead, she said.
Of the 150 House members, 70 have signed on in support of Drivers’ bill. In the Senate, 12 of 31 senators signed in support of Wentworth’s bill.
“We hope Texas will serve as a leader and have a domino effect,” Kasprzak said.
But at the University of Texas, which has its own history of shooting violence, the idea has met stiff opposition.
Charles Whitman’s 1966 shooting rampage from the top of the university tower killed 16 people and wounded dozens more. It stood as the worst campus shooting in history until the Virginia Tech bloodbath.
The UT student government, the graduate student assembly and the faculty advisory council have all passed resolutions against the campus guns bills.
Opponents say that if guns are allowed on campus, students and faculty will live in fear of their classmates and colleagues, not knowing who might pull a gun over a drunken dorm argument or a poor grade.
Once guns are drawn, it would be hard for responding police to know who the bad guys are, said Brian Malte, state legislation and politics director for the Brady Campaign.
“It’s a recipe for disaster,” Malte said.
Woods has helped lead the charge against the bills. He filed the student government resolution opposing them.
Woods, who wore a maroon “Virginia Tech Class of 2007” t-shirt during a recent interview, said he hasn’t heard from any survivor of the Virginia Tech shooting who supports guns on campus. They tell him just the opposite, he said.
“Every one I’ve talked to has said they don’t think guns on campus would help,” he said.
During those moments analyzing what would happen if someone started shooting in his class, Woods says he figures it would be too sudden to stop, even if a student or teacher had a gun. Virginia Tech survivors told him everything just happened so fast.
“Everything happens too quickly,” Woods said. “You either play dead or you are dead.”
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The guns on campus bills are HB1893 and SB1164.
