Stephen Bloch

Ray LaMontagne has announced he has canceled his concert slated to take place tonight at the University of Texas’ Bass Concert Hall due to the state’s new law that allows concealed weapons to be carried on public university campuses. The musician announced the cancelation via a statement posted on his Facebook page (via Rolling Stone)

In the note, LaMontagne expresses his concern over the law, which includes performance spaces like the one in which he was set to perform this evening, writing, “There are a lot of things this country needs more of, but guns aren’t one of them.”

LaMontagne goes on to voice the “collective disappointment” that he and his touring band, which includes members of My Morning Jacket, feel about the law.

“I consider myself to be a very open minded human being, and I always try and see things from another’s point of view,” LaMontagne writes. “I realize this is a controversial issue and there are strong feelings on both sides of it. But no matter how hard I try to understand the rationale for allowing guns on campus or more broadly, the ‘concealed carry’ law in general, I just cannot in any way support that ideology.”

In an additional comment to the post, which also noted that all tickets to tonight’s concert will be refunded at the point of purchase, LaMontagne addresses that he and the band respect “everyone’s opinion around the issue” and that they attempted to get a “special exemption” from the law for the show but were refused by the office of UT President Gregory Fenves.