MAP: Does Your State Let You Carry a Gun on Campus?

Five states now do, and seven others may soon follow—including Texas, where a shooting just shook up a community college.

On Tuesday, a dispute between two people at Lone Star College in Houston ended in a gun fight. Three people were wounded (including suspects in the shooting), and a fourth person was reportedly hospitalized with an unspecified “medical emergency” in connection with the incident. It was the sixth shooting on or near a US college campus this month.

Texas generally has lax gun laws, but prohibits carrying a concealed weapon on a college campus. The GOP-controlled Texas Legislature may soon change that, however. Last week, state Sen. Brian Birdwell, a Republican, introduced new “campus carry” legislation that would allow firearms to be carried at public colleges with a valid permit. Texas would join five states* that, to varying degrees, now allow weapons to be carried on campuses. And lawmakers in at least seven other states are aiming to follow suit.

Does your state allow concealed guns on college campuses? Hover over an individual state for further details. (Also see lists below the map.)

States with laws allowing guns on college campuses: Colorado, Mississippi, Oregon, Utah, and Wisconsin.

States in which lawmakers have recently introduced legislation to allow guns on campuses: Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, and Wyoming.

For more, check out MoJo‘s yearlong investigation into gun laws and mass shootings in the United States.

Correction: California was included in this category in the initial version of the story; the state bans concealed guns on college campuses but makes exceptions for individuals with valid licenses who are granted specific permission by school authorities.

Sources: National Conference of State Legislatures; Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate