(NaturalNews) In the wake of the recent campus shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, Texas decided to join seven other states in allowing students to carry concealed weapons to class, in their dormitories and on campus, in both private and public schools throughout the state. However, more than 800 professors, lecturers and faculty members at the University of Texas in Austin (UT) aren't too happy about it.

The said faculty members signed a letter calling on Texas Governor Greg Abbott to repeal Senate Bill 11, also known as the "campus carry" bill, which affirms the Second Amendment rights of students to carry protection in the form of concealed firearms, while attending state universities. Calling themselves "Gun Free UT," the UT faculty members opposed to the measure believe that law-abiding students don't have a right to carry guns to class, and that doing so could pose a safety risk.

You can view the letter and its signatories here.

Buying into the myth that banning guns will somehow prevent gun crimes, those opposed to SB 11 seem ignorant to the fact that when non-criminals have guns on their person, criminals are less likely to open fire on innocents. Criminals, after all, don't follow the law to begin with, so why would they pay any attention whatsoever to concealed carry laws?

Seven other U.S. states already allow concealed carry on university campuses. These include Colorado, Idaho, Mississippi, Utah, Wisconsin and Oregon. Ironically enough, UT has had concealed carry on its campus for several decades without issue, which is why some are now questioning the faculty members' motives for opposing the measure.

"UT has had concealed carry just on campus for the past 20 years," stated Allison Peregory, a pre-law student at UT Austin and chairman of the Young Conservatives of Texas, to The Famuan Online. "It's not a foreign concept. Campus carry is not this new radical thought process."

When law-abiding citizens carry guns, crimes rates go down

With some of the worst inner-city crime rates in the nation, Chicago is a great example of how concealed carry laws help reduce crime rates. When the state of Illinois' concealed carry ban was overturned in 2012, crime rates in what many had referred to as the murder capital of the world plummeted.

According to Chicago Police Department statistics, the homicide rate in the first quarter of 2014 dropped to a 56-year low. Likewise, burglaries dropped by 20 percent, automobile thefts dropped by 26 percent and robberies leading to arrest dropped by 20 percent.

"It isn't any coincidence crime rates started to go down when concealed carry was permitted," stated Richard Pearson, executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association, to The Washington Times following the release of these eye-opening statistics. "Just the idea that the criminals don't know who's armed and who isn't has a deterrence effect."

The UT staff opposed to SB 11 seem to hold the exact opposite view. They believe that allowing guns in the classroom will create confusion and an "unstable ambiance." Somehow, believing that only criminals are secretly packing heat is comforting to these folks, who would rather everyone with a conscience and mental stability be unarmed, while the crazies run around in violation of the law, shooting up innocent people in the process.

This is the deranged mindset of the anti-gun left, which systematically fails time and time again to acknowledge the reality that criminals don't abide by laws. The only people who follow gun laws are law-abiding citizens, the very folks who should be carrying weapons in order to prevent the type of tragedy that just recently occurred in Oregon.

Sources used:

TheTruthAboutGuns.com

TheFamuanOnline.com

TruthInMedia.com