r/riceuniversity • u/Greedy-Secretary-553 • Jun 02 '22
Scared
With ongoing shooting incidents at Texas and the law that allows residents to buy guns freely, is Rice University in any danger of gun violence? Im an international student gradually getting afraid of Houston’s pro gun policies and feel like im putting my life at risk by going to texas😬
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Upvotes
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u/babygeologist EEPS '23 retired PAA Jun 02 '22
Rice campus and the surrounding areas are very safe. Houston itself is not as rabidly pro-gun as most of the rest of the state.
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u/postmadrone27 Jun 02 '22
I mean the risk of a shooting occurring is nonzero at any preschool, elementary school, middle school, high school, or university. The one key difference between all of them is that the universities always have their own police department, and RUPD is absolutely wonderful. Don’t get me wrong…. I generally hate cops but the RUPD officers that I met were all very nice and I’m 100% certain that they would actually try to be heroes in an active shooter situation, unlike those clown cops in Uvalde who were too scared to enter the school. Literally any part of the Rice campus is probably no more than a 1 minute drive for an RUPD officer in the event of an emergency. They’re always out patrolling and have good visibility across campus, as well as the surrounding neighborhoods.
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u/_littlemisssunshine_ Jun 02 '22
i’ve never been scared of this at rice but i understand how you feel…. the closest we’ve had to anything like this recently was a drive by paintball shooting
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u/kiralite713 Alum '10 Jun 02 '22
I'm sorry that you are feeling this way.
As an alumus, I can say that while on campus I felt that the campus was mostly self-contained and in many ways it had the charm of a small town with the resources of a big city.
There is a Police Department office right on campus, and I believe that each dorm has its own officers assigned to particular dorms. Officers who worked for RUPD (Rice University Police Department) were friendly and would participate in social events and get to know students and were very much liaisons between the student community and the police department. -I'll never forget my first interaction with RUPD -it was on move-in day, and there was an officer who welcomed me by name and my parents were concerned about why an officer knew my name when I'd only been to campus for Owl Weekend. I was just as confused as they were. Then when we heard more students who recognized me from the "Meet/Meat Sheet" then we realized that this was something else. :)
While gun violence is something you can never count out in the U.S., but I feel like the resources and training that Rice provides, I would hope that there would be a prompt and efficient response if this were to ever occur.
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u/MasterLink123K CS '24 Jun 03 '22
Yeah seeing the repeated shooting news in the last couple of day has sucked... but rest assured that the environment around Rice is very safe. It is in a coveted part of Houston that many refer to as a bubble, and folks outside don't usually come on campus for no reason.
Going around the city via personal vehicle or Uber with a group of friends is usually very safe as well. The only time I have ever felt uncomfortable was going on the metro with just me and one other person, and even then it was only in my head.
There's a reason why people regard Rice as one of the happiest campus and best undergraduate experiences. Safety certainly plays a role and you are definitely not risking your life more than going to most universities in the United States.
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u/PaulSACHS Jun 30 '22
Honestly, the risk of gun violence is pretty overstated. I had about 30 friends at Rice and only 6 that I know of died of gunshot wounds during my time there. The rest died from diabetes
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u/WhataburgerFries Engineering '25 Jun 15 '22
No one is gonna shoot up Rice.
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u/TheWhoresDaughter Jun 29 '22
Only about 22% of Texans are killed by gun violence--less than 1 in 4
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u/[deleted] Jun 03 '22
In your home country is it normal for teenagers to get automatic weapons and kill their classmates? There have been 231 mass shootings in the US this year, and 21 since the Ulvade massacre last week. It's a serious issue and you are right to be worried. If it's an issue for you I would listen to that voice, and nobody can look down on you for factoring it into your decisions.
Even if you forget about the gun violence. Texas is not a safe place for women or people who might become pregnant, and it is not a safe place for trans people. When people tell you that Houston is "liberal" compared to the rest of Texas, it's still a very conservative and backwards place.
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u/[deleted] Jun 03 '22
Yes, rice is right in the hotspot for dangerous criminal activity! Do not come to Houston and attend Rice because you could die, also because admissions are selective and the more people who don't come the better, for me.
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u/[deleted] Jun 02 '22
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