美国德克萨斯州拟通过法案允许教师和学生持枪进入校园，德州一半以上的众议员都已在此项提案上联合署名，该州州长也表示支持此案。

Texas is preparing to give college students and professors the right to carry guns on campus, adding momentum¹ to a national campaign to open this part of society to firearms.

More than half the members of the Texas House have signed on as co-authors of a measure directing universities to allow concealed²（隐蔽的） handguns. The Senate passed a similar bill in 2009 and is expected to do so again. Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who sometimes packs a pistol when he jogs（慢跑，轻推） , has said he’s in favor of the idea.

Texas has become a prime battleground for the issue because of its gun culture and its size, with 38 public universities and more than 500,000 students. It would become the second state, following Utah, to pass such a broad-based law. Colorado gives colleges the option and several have allowed handguns.

Supporters of the legislation argue that gun violence on campuses, such as the mass shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007 and Northern Illinois in 2008, show that the best defense³ against a gunman is students who can shoot back.

"It’s strictly⁴ a matter of self-defense," said state Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio. "I don’t ever want to see repeated on a Texas college campus what happened at Virginia Tech, where some deranged⁵, suicidal madman goes into a building and is able to pick off totally defenseless kids like sitting ducks."

Until the Virginia Tech incident, the worst college shooting in U.S. history occurred at the University of Texas, when sniper Charles Whitman went to the top of the administration tower in 1966 and killed 16 people and wounded dozens. Last September, a University of Texas student fired several shots from an assault rifle before killing⁶ himself.

Similar firearms measures have been proposed in about a dozen other states, but all face strong opposition⁷, especially from college leaders. In Oklahoma, all 25 public college and university presidents declared their opposition to a concealed carry proposal.

"There is no scenario⁸ where allowing concealed weapons on college campuses will do anything other than create a more dangerous environment for students, faculty⁹, staff and visitors," Oklahoma Chancellor¹⁰ of Higher Education Glen Johnson said in January.

University of Texas President William Powers has opposed concealed handguns on campus, saying the mix of students, guns and campus parties is too volatile¹¹（挥发的，不稳定的） .

Guns occupy a special place in Texas culture. Politicians often tout¹²（兜售，招徕） owning a gun as essential to being Texan. Concealed handgun license¹³ holders¹⁴ are allowed to skip the metal detectors¹⁵ that scan Capitol visitors for guns, knives and other contraband¹⁶（走私） .

Guns on campus bills have been rejected in 23 states since 2007, but gun control activists¹⁷ acknowledge it will be difficult to stop the Texas bill from passing this year. "Things do look bleak," said Colin Goddard, assistant director of federal legislation for the Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence, who was in Austin recently to lobby against the Texas bills.

Opponents of campus gun rights say students and faculty would live in fear of their classmates and colleagues, not knowing who might pull a gun over a poor grade, a broken romance or a drunken fraternity（友爱，兄弟会） argument.