Texas professors sue over guns on campus before class begins

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas' new law allowing concealed handguns in college classrooms, buildings and dorms has barely started and already faces a legal challenge seeking to block it before students return for the fall semester.

The law took effect Monday, the 50th anniversary of Charles Whitman's sniper attack from the top of the University of Texas campus clock tower, a shooting spree that eventually claimed 17 lives and has come to be accepted as the nation's first mass shooting.

The lawsuit by sociology professor Jennifer Lynn Glass, creative writing professor Lisa Moore and English professor Mia Carter says allowing guns into classrooms could be dangerous when discussions can wade into emotionally and politically charged topics such as gay rights and abortion.

"Compelling professors at a public university to allow, without any limitation or restriction, students to carry concealed guns in their classrooms chills their First Amendment rights to academic freedom," their lawsuit says.

William McRaven, a former Navy SEAL who coordinated the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, urged lawmakers not to pass the law, telling them allowing guns would make campuses less safe.