College Students Carry Empty Holsters in Protest
Written by Sam on October 28th, 2007College students across the country have been strapping empty holsters around their waists this week to protest laws that prohibit concealed weapons on campus, citing concerns over campus shootings.”People who would otherwise be able to defend themselves are left defenseless when on campus,” said Ethan Bratt, a graduate student wearing an empty holster this week on the campus of Seattle Pacific University.Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, a group of college students, parents and citizens who organized after the deadly shootings at Virginia Tech University in April, launched the protest.
I have been hearing this debated more and more lately and it’s becoming a contentious issue. Some argue that if college students are able to carry that campuses will turn into a bonanza. This claim is of course without any merit because the State of Utah has allowed concealed carry on campuses for years and they have not had a single incident. Then you have people like Tracy Schario from GW:
“We do not allow weapons on campus for the safety and security of our student body and faculty,”
Her position, while well intentioned, is simply illogical. Virginia Tech had the same policy as did all the other schools that have had incidents of shootings. It’s the same ridiculous argument that gun grabbing advocates make in terms of making the entire population gun free and “more safe.” The bad guys don’t follow the rules and the victims are left defenseless. A year or two ago there was a series of muggings on the University of Pittsburgh campus, one in which a student was beaten pretty badly. Would that have still happened if the would be attackers knew that conceal carry was permitted on the Pitt campus?
The Second Amendment rights of college students all across the country have been violated for a long time and it’s become rather clear in recent years that they are sitting ducks when they are at school. If students at Virginia Tech had been able to carry a gun 32 more of them might still be alive.
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This is becoming a very big issue, in my opinion teachers should have the right to carry… mybe less students would have been harmed. It would also be a deterent against those who are think about doing something in the future.
http://www.freewebs.com/cdreloader/
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Haha, a professor wouldnt get near a gun! Guns are evil, dont you know that?
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chaos develops, everyone pulls out their guns… someone is shooting up the campus? everyone is a wreck, nervous, now tell me geniuses, during the chaos how do you tell who the shooter is? you folks live in your suburban communities, this type of thinking does not work in densly populated areas like a city.
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Everyone pulls out their guns huh? And where is your data for this? Oh, that’s right. You don’t have any. You’re speaking solely on an emotional appeal, what you think would happen without any factual evidence whatsoever.
College students in Utah have been allowed to carry on campus for years and this faux scenario of chaos you talk up has never happened. In fact, they have never had a shooting incident on a college campus.
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It’s true, Roger has no evidence of such chaos happening. Just like you have no evidence that if guns were allowed on VA tech’s campus “32 more of them might still be alive”.
In Utah, there hasn’t been a college campus shooting- just like in almost every other state, many of which ban guns on campus. You make it seem like banning guns on campus is a surefire recipe for a school shooting, which it is most certainly not.
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David we do have evidence that more guns equal less crime. who knows what would have happened at VA Tech had students been allowed to carry guns. Studies (see John Lott’s work on FBI statistics on all 3,000+ counties in the US) show a correlation between shall issue laws and a decrease in violent crime.
Look at Kennesaw, Ga. (suburb of Atlanta)who famously passed ordinances in the early 1980’s requiring its citizens to get concealed weapons permits. Violent crime essentially disappeared overnight.
One only need to look to England where guns are outlawed. Their crimes rates are rising. someone forgot to tell the criminals to hand in their guns.
I wrote about this a while back when the shootings occurred.
http://www.savethegop.com/2007/04/17/this-would-not-have-happened-at-hampden-sydney/
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I find it amazing that Roger knows where I live!
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so tell us Dave, where do you live? Im in a major city. I see more people just going to work in the morning than you probably see in 2 months.
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Michael,
Can you please refer me to these studies? I would be very interested in reading them. Thanks!
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Roger, Dave lives well within the city, about five minutes from downtown. So it looks like you’ve just been burned baby!
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Rudy Giuliani was an extremely successful NYC mayor. Part of his success was do to getting illegal guns off the street through major gun control. NYC is the safest big city in the US and this is due to, in part, to gun control efforts and enforcement that started with Rudy Giuliani .
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Rudy Giuliani was able to do this thanks to the massive crime bill written and planned by Joe Biden, which became known as the Clinton crime bill.
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David, thanks for your response. Certainly, the crime bill was helpful as were Giuliani’s crime fighting strategies such as quality of life laws and the NYPD’s COMSTAT crime computer system that helps to ID high crime neighborhoods. Giuliani comes from a law enforcement background. He knows that a certain amount of gun control is absolutely necessary to control crime. The problem is not with legal gun ownership but with the unregulated gun commerce. The sales & transfer of guns to criminals and the mentally ill is being done through loop holes and lax enforcement of existing gun laws. The issue at Virginia Tech has to do with enforcing existing gun laws so unstable schizophrenics can’t purchase guns. I cannot understand the opposition to this kind of sensible and necessary gun regulation.