When students, faculty and staff gathered Oct. 1 on the University of Texas at Austin’s West Mall rally area to protest the implementation of the state’s new “campus carry” law, they had no way of knowing that news coverage of their rally would be overshadowed by a campus shooting taking place at that very moment in Oregon. Oblivious to the carnage unfolding halfway across the country, speaker after speaker took the stage to explain how the presence of guns would impede the free exchange of ideas and hinder their ability to speak openly on controversial topics.
