AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ John Woods sometimes sits in a classroom at the University of Texas and wonders what would happen if somebody walked in and started shooting.
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 Monday 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.