The Fight Goes On
As a resident of Virginia, I am fortunate that gun laws are lenient enough to allow me the right to carry for defense in most areas of the state. However, one of the most gaping areas in which it is illegal to carry are college campuses-not for the general population, mind you, but for students. Students who have gone through the process of applying for a Concealed Weapons Permit and been approved may carry off-campus, yet face expulsion if they feel the need to carry for their own self-defense on-campus. Not only is this absurd from a legal standpoint, but it makes college campuses open ground for criminals, who know that any student is all but defenseless.
Liberals love to argue that the presence of weapons on campus is inviting random acts of violence. However, Concealed Permit holders have been shown by studies to be much less likely to commit crimes of any type. Also, liberals like to argue that defense is best left to police officers. However, what liberals refuse to accept is that the police aren't capable of preventing crime-their job is to investigate crime after it occurs. It can often take several minutes for police to respond to an emergency situation, minutes during which the victim of the crime is defenseless-unless that victim has the capability to defend himself.
Let's take a minute and compare two campus shootings that've taken place in the past few years. Both shootings have involved lone gunmen who forced their way into the campus and began shooting. On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and opened fire. Almost immediately after the shooting began, multiple 911 calls went out-yet 5 minutes passed before the first police officers arrived, and almost 5 minutes after that before the first police officers entered the building. Lanza had time to kill 20 first-grade students, 6 adults, and himself before police entered the building. Connecticut has some of the strongest gun-control laws in the country-and yet every person in that school was defenseless because no one was allowed to carry.
Now, let's change schools. Almost a year to the day after Sandy Hook (December 13, 2013), Karl Pierson walked into Arapahoe High School in Colorado. Armed with a shotgun and Molotov cocktails, he also intended to kill as many people as possible. However, this time there was an armed school resource officer on the school grounds, who immediately rushed towards the gunfire-the shooter, realizing this, took his own life after shooting only one student. The entire incident lasted less than 80 seconds, and it received little attention.
The reason I bring these two schools up is because of this: After the Sandy Hook shooting, NRA Executive Vice President called for armed officers in every school in the country-and was vilified for it. Liberal groups attacked him with a vengeance, and his proposition was seen as a joke. However, just one year later, it was an armed resource officer who saved possibly dozens of lives at Arapahoe High School.
Now, let's go back to college for a moment. College campuses are significantly larger than high schools, so the idea of armed resource officers is less feasible. However, why is it so threatening to allow licensed permit-holders to carry their personal weapons onto campus? Even teachers are prohibited from carrying their own weapons concealed onto campuses-and what does it solve, other than acting as an invitation to violence by criminals who by their very nature are deranged?
It makes me angry sometimes when I see the Brady Campaign and other anti-gun groups lash out against legal gun owners carrying guns-they never seem to see the benefits, despite the number of times that they've stopped mass murders in their tracks. For a few more examples of this, see this article by Ted Nugent, a conservative activist who serves on the board of the NRA.
Would Concealed Carry on Campus stop school shootings? Probably not. Would Concealed Carry on Campus limit the body count of those shootings? Absolutely.
Liberals love to argue that the presence of weapons on campus is inviting random acts of violence. However, Concealed Permit holders have been shown by studies to be much less likely to commit crimes of any type. Also, liberals like to argue that defense is best left to police officers. However, what liberals refuse to accept is that the police aren't capable of preventing crime-their job is to investigate crime after it occurs. It can often take several minutes for police to respond to an emergency situation, minutes during which the victim of the crime is defenseless-unless that victim has the capability to defend himself.
Let's take a minute and compare two campus shootings that've taken place in the past few years. Both shootings have involved lone gunmen who forced their way into the campus and began shooting. On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and opened fire. Almost immediately after the shooting began, multiple 911 calls went out-yet 5 minutes passed before the first police officers arrived, and almost 5 minutes after that before the first police officers entered the building. Lanza had time to kill 20 first-grade students, 6 adults, and himself before police entered the building. Connecticut has some of the strongest gun-control laws in the country-and yet every person in that school was defenseless because no one was allowed to carry.
Now, let's change schools. Almost a year to the day after Sandy Hook (December 13, 2013), Karl Pierson walked into Arapahoe High School in Colorado. Armed with a shotgun and Molotov cocktails, he also intended to kill as many people as possible. However, this time there was an armed school resource officer on the school grounds, who immediately rushed towards the gunfire-the shooter, realizing this, took his own life after shooting only one student. The entire incident lasted less than 80 seconds, and it received little attention.
The reason I bring these two schools up is because of this: After the Sandy Hook shooting, NRA Executive Vice President called for armed officers in every school in the country-and was vilified for it. Liberal groups attacked him with a vengeance, and his proposition was seen as a joke. However, just one year later, it was an armed resource officer who saved possibly dozens of lives at Arapahoe High School.
Now, let's go back to college for a moment. College campuses are significantly larger than high schools, so the idea of armed resource officers is less feasible. However, why is it so threatening to allow licensed permit-holders to carry their personal weapons onto campus? Even teachers are prohibited from carrying their own weapons concealed onto campuses-and what does it solve, other than acting as an invitation to violence by criminals who by their very nature are deranged?
It makes me angry sometimes when I see the Brady Campaign and other anti-gun groups lash out against legal gun owners carrying guns-they never seem to see the benefits, despite the number of times that they've stopped mass murders in their tracks. For a few more examples of this, see this article by Ted Nugent, a conservative activist who serves on the board of the NRA.
Would Concealed Carry on Campus stop school shootings? Probably not. Would Concealed Carry on Campus limit the body count of those shootings? Absolutely.
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