Category: Texas “Open Carry”
What is a Canadian?
worker | January 14, 2017 | 6:30 pm | Canada, Health Care, humor, Texas "Open Carry" | Comments closed

Canadian

‘Make racists afraid again’: Texas communists take up rifles, troll White Lives Matter
worker | November 23, 2016 | 7:22 pm | Analysis, political struggle, Texas "Open Carry" | 1 Comment

© Sputnik
If this photo is anything to go by it’s not just the right-wing in America that will have their guns ‘pried from their cold, dead hands’.

A self-styled communist group is causing a stir in Texas, after taking a stand during an anti-White Lives Matter demo in Austin.

A viral Reddit post features a photo of a small, apparently “communist”, open-carry militia standing with semi-automatic rifles and bearing a sign reading ‘Make racists afraid again’.

The Red Guards Austin claim the protest took place on November 19 “as a direct response to a planned protest” by the White Lives Matter group, and the presence of the communists and their guns made some people feel uncomfortable.

The Red Guards Austin said they outnumbered the “fascists” behind the White Lives Matter movement and that it was their “duty as communists” to shut down such protests in Texas.

Around 24 people from White Lives Matter protested, while there were eight arrests, according to AP.

“As Maoists, we firmly believe that white supremacists need to be met with and overwhelmed by a greater force,” the Red Guards wrote. “This is why we called for an armed partisan unit under our command.”

The trolling traveled both ways though.

The communists’ outfits were targeted:

Another questioned if it’s legal to hide one’s identity while being in possession of a firearm.

The incident comes after six communists were arrested in Austin for reportedly assaulting supporters of Donald Trump.

The Hazards of Concealed Firearms on Campus:
worker | September 14, 2016 | 7:46 pm | Analysis, Local/State, political struggle, Struggle for African American equality, Texas "Open Carry" | Comments closed

A Statement by the Kansas University Department of African and African-American Studies

Between 2013 and 2014, at least thirty-three states introduced legislation to allow concealed firearms at their institutions of higher education.  At least eight states currently have some form of concealed-carry law in effect on college and university campuses. Kansas will join these ranks in the fall of 2017, when postsecondary schools in the Regents system are set to lose their exemption from state legislation permitting concealed firearms in all public places. Needless to say, the issue has been hotly contested.  In a statement released in December 2015, forty university distinguished professors at Kansas State University argued that the expanded presence of firearms on campus will increase the risk of accidental shootings, as well as exacerbate the problem of suicide among traditional college-age students.  Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that deaths from suicide in the United States have surged since 1999.

Of the Kanas Regents institutions, members of the University of Kansas (KU) community have expressed the strongest opposition to implementing this concealed-carry policy in the state’s institutions of higher learning.  Sixty-eight KU distinguished professors registered their opposition to the policy, while the KU Department of History released a similar statement and resolution against it.  The policy is likely to make it difficult not only to recruit and retain students at a moment when enrollments already have been on a decline, but it is likely also to negatively affect the retention and hiring of faculty and staff. Further, no comprehensive policy currently exists to manage guns and gun safety on campus, while no evidence exists that the expanded presence of firearms will decrease the threat of active shooters.  However, one examination of data compiled under the Clery Act – which requires colleges and universities to keep and disclose information on crimes committed on or near their campuses – suggests that incidents of sexual assault potentially could increase as a result of more guns.

Like many of our colleagues at KU, and on campuses around the nation, the faculty in the KU Department of African and African-American Studies believe that firearms are incompatible with the mission and function of higher education, and their presence among students, faculty and staff threatens academic freedom and a safe, productive learning environment. To take one recent example: At a campus forum a the University of Houston – where a similar concealed-firearm law was implemented during this past summer – the president of the faculty senate suggested that in adjusting to the new policy, classroom instructors should consider “be[ing] careful discussing sensitive topics,” “drop[ping] certain topics from your curriculum,” and “not ‘go[ing] there’ if you sense anger” from students.  At the University of Texas-Austin, two senior faculty members, including a dean, resigned over concerns about concealed-carry.  These examples illustrate the chilling effect, demoralization and departures that we fear will occur at KU and wherever else such laws are enforced.

As African and African-American Studies faculty, we write and teach primarily about people of African descent, including the Islamic world, black urban communities disproportionately affected by police abuse and gun violence in the United States, and immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean.  In our current national, regional and local climate of hostility toward people of color, Islamophobia, and a general fear of racial and immigrant “others,” we are especially concerned that the increased presence of guns particularly will expose minoritized groups to threat and harm in classroom and campus encounters.  This concern, of course, comes in light of the fact that people of color at KU, and colleges and universities around the nation, have brought attention to harmful campus environments that already exist.  Ironically, the heightened sense of fear and anxiety created by an expansion of firearms on campus may also expose students, staff and faculty of color to further threat of racial profiling and surveillance.  As the police shooting of Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota illustrated this past summer, concealed-carry laws do not offer protection to people of color even when they operate within the boundaries of the law.

Based on recent developments in our neighboring state of Texas, we have legitimate reason to also fear that an increase in firearms on campus will suppress healthy dialogue and exchanges about race, gender, class, religion, sexuality, nationality, and other categories of social difference that are essential to fostering a well-rounded, empathetic, critically thinking citizenry of lifelong learners prepared for forward-looking, democratic decision making.  The KU African and African-American Studies faculty supports the continued restriction of guns at Kansas Regents schools, and we express our solidarity with other departments, academic units, and faculty, staff and students equally against allowing our campuses to become armed camps.

Texas Cop Was Accidentally Shot by Federal Agent Amid High School Attack
worker | September 8, 2016 | 1:24 pm | Local/State, police terrorism, Texas "Open Carry" | Comments closed
20:52 08.09.2016
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A shooting at a high school in Texas has left the suspect dead and at least two people injured, one of which was a police officer mistakenly shot by a US marshall responding to the scene.The incident began at approximately 9:00 AM, when a female student opened fire on a classmate at Alpine High School in West Texas. The victim was rushed to the hospital, and their condition remains unknown. The shooter was found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A police officer also suffered a gunshot injury, though Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodson had revealed that he was not shot by the suspect. He was, instead, accidentally shot by a US marshall responding to the first shooting. The condition of the injured officer is also unknown. Authorities initially believed there were two shooters on the scene, though Dodson said they now believe the deceased to be the only suspect. “It was scary, I didn’t really know what was going to happen,” William Butler, a student at Alpine, told NBC News. “The cops knocked on the door a little bit later and started to escort everyone out. When the police escorted us out of the classroom, there was a trail of blood going from the hallway I was going in towards the band hall.” The school, which has roughly 280 students, was placed on lockdown in the wake of the shooting. The incident comes only two weeks after the beginning of the new school year.

Read more: https://sputniknews.com/us/20160908/1045105449/texas-school-shooting.html

1 dead, 4 injured in separate shootings in downtown Austin, Texas – officials
worker | July 31, 2016 | 8:09 pm | Local/State, Texas "Open Carry" | Comments closed

https://www.rt.com/usa/354053-shooting-austin-texas-casualties/

© Ruptly
At least one person has been killed, and four injured in Austin, Texas after two separate shootings in the downtown area of the city, emergency services and police stated.

A woman was pronounced dead at the scene and two women and one man were taken to University Medical Center Brackenridge, Captain Rick Rutledge of the Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services told AP.

A fourth person was also injured but declined the option of having medical treatment, officials confirmed.

Police Chief Brian Manley confirmed that the deceased is the woman in her 30s.

Manley also said that two incidents were ‘unrelated,’ and there was no active shooter present.

“It was a very chaotic scene,” Manley said. “A lot of people running in different directions with all the gunshots coming out.”

According to Manley, the suspect may be among those transported to hospitals.

“We have multiple individuals, witnesses, that we are currently interviewing,” Manley said. “We had one individual who was initially noted as a person of interest, however that person’s status at this point is undetermined.”

Multiple units have headed to 208 East 6th Street , the Austin-Travis County EMS said, as cited by KXAN news.

Austin police subsequently reported that separate shootings had taken place in the same area. However both incidents are now under control.

“We just literarily saw three people being shot in downtown Austin,” one local resident wrote on Instagram, after posting a video that showed the aftermath of the attack.

Hostage situation ends, shooter killed at Walmart in Amarillo, Texas – police
worker | June 14, 2016 | 9:19 pm | Local/State, Texas "Open Carry" | Comments closed

https://www.rt.com/usa/346660-amarillo-walmart-shooter-hostages/

© Carlos Barria
An active shooter situation has ended at a Walmart in Amarillo, Texas after a SWAT team shot the gunman, local police say. The shooter had hostages.

The suspect has been shot by Amarillo police SWAT Team and “is apparently dead,” police said.

Amarillo police identified the suspect on Tuesday afternoon as Mohammad Moghaddam, 45, adding that one of the hostages was a manager “with whom the suspect had a work related dispute.”

“The hostages were freed within the past half hour after the suspect was shot and killed by Amarillo Police Department SWAT team members,” the Randall County Sheriff’s Office said.

The Amarillo Police Department has evacuated the west side of the store, according to KVII.

There have not been any confirmed gunshot victims inside the store, Amarillo PD said.

The Randall County Sheriff’s Office says “several law enforcement agencies are currently on the scene with an armed subject,” adding that “there are reports the subject inside may have hostages.”

“We do consider this a work-place violence situation at this point,” the sheriff’s office said, adding that there have been no confirmed injuries.

Police have not said if anyone is hurt but they have called for people to stay away from the area.

Witnesses said the shooter was an employee who took another employee hostage, KVII reported.

Customers and two Walmart employees were held hostage, but all are safe now, the company said in a statement.

Amarillo police said there is currently no reason to believe the hostage situation was motivated by terrorism or political ideology, the Amarillo Globe-News reported.

The family of Glen Jones, the manager of the Walmart in Amarillo, told the Globe-News that Jones was taken hostage but was not harmed.

Shooting at Texas Air Base Classified as ‘Workplace Violent Incident’
worker | April 8, 2016 | 8:09 pm | Local/State, political struggle, Texas "Open Carry" | Comments closed
Military and law enforcement personnel are seen inside Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas April 8, 2016

Shooting at Texas Air Base Classified as ‘Workplace Violent Incident’

© REUTERS/ Darren Abate
Get short URL

US Air Force Joint Base San Diego said that a shooting at Lackland Air Force Base in the US state of Texas that resulted in the death of two people has been classified as a violent incident at a workplace.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — A shooting at Lackland Air Force Base in the US state of Texas that resulted in the death of two people has been classified as a violent incident at a workplace, US Air Force Joint Base San Diego said in a press release.

“Two handguns were found at the scene by the first responders and the ongoing investigation also confirmed that this was a workplace violence incident and not the result of a terrorist attack,” the press release stated on Friday.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/us/20160409/1037731077/texas-shooting-workplace-incident.html#ixzz45Hs1q5b6