Posted on 11/18/2008 5:38:23 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
SAN MARCOS, Texas -- Violence on college campuses is a growing concern among students, and some say it's time to take protection into their own hands -- by carrying guns.
Mike Guzman, a senior at Texas State University-San Marcos, is among 30,000 members of Students For Concealed Carry on Campus, a group dedicated to a nationwide effort to make it legal for students to carry concealed handguns on campus, San Antonio television news station KSAT reported.
"It's a tool that we're allowed to use across the street in larger society, so why not on campus?" Guzman said.
Concealed handguns may not be carried at various places including schools, polling places and courts, according to the Concealed Handgun Statute (PDF) as provided by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
"It's almost offensive that I can carry a firearm every single day when I'm in the Marine Corps, and yet, when I come on campus, I can't be trusted," Guzman said.
The SCCC formed in response to the April 16, 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech University that claimed 33 lives, including that of the shooter.
Virginia Tech had another brief scare early Nov. 13, 2008, after a nail gun cartridge produced sounds similar to gunfire and prompted warnings and news alerts across campus, according to The Associated Press.
The group advocates that states allow people with concealed handgun licenses to carry their firearms on college campuses in an effort to prevent additional carnage from a potential threat and to help deter any future attacks. Guzman said allowing law-abiding students with concealed carrying licenses would also reduce other campus crimes such as burglaries and sexual assaults.
"I don't know. That kind of scares me," Texas State freshman Rachel Yon said. "I wouldn't go for that."
Guzman is also the administrator of a Texas State Facebook group advocating the allowance of concealed handguns on campus. That group has 188 members as of Nov. 13. Conversely, a Texas State Facebook group against allowing concealed handguns on campus has 540 members as of the same date.
"I believe it would be a bad idea," Texas State senior Adam Cervantez said.
Guzman testified before the Texas House Law Enforcement Committee in June, and now has State Rep. Joe Driver, R-Garland, -- chair of the Law Enforcement Committee -- and State Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, crafting bills for consideration.
Utah is currently the only state that allows concealed handguns to be carried on campus.
Gun Sales On The Rise
In the days leading up to the general election, news organizations around the country and nationally reported an increase in sales at local gun shops, attributing the news to gun-owners' fears -- stoked by the National Rifle Association -- that Barack Obama would seeks limits on gun ownership.
"If you want to buy a gun, now's the time to do it because a lot of things might change after Jan. 20," San Antonio-area gun enthusiast Ken Slater said.
The Washington Post, citing statistics from the federal government's National Instant Criminal Background Check System database, reported 8.4 million background checks from Jan. 1 to Sept. 28, compared with 7.7 million in the same period the previous year -- a 9 percent increase.
But it's not clear that gun ownership has increased in the recent past. The Violence Policy Center, citing University of Chicago statistics, found that the percentage of U.S. households reporting guns in the home dropped from 54 percent in 1977 to 34.5 percent in 2006.
Obama repeated during his campaign for the presidency that he believes the Constitution protects individual gun-owners' rights and that he does not want to take away their guns.
"I have large numbers of sportsmen and gun owners in my home state, and they have supported me precisely because I have listened to them and I know them well," he said in his April 16 debate with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Critics dispute what he says. They point out that he once sat on the board of Joyce Foundation, whose Gun Violence Program "supports efforts to bring the firearms industry under comprehensive consumer product health and safety oversight as the most promising long-term strategy for reducing deaths and injuries from handguns and other firearms." As an Illinois state lawmaker, he supported a ban on all forms of semiautomatic weapons and tighter state restrictions generally on firearms.
"I think there is an individual right to bear arms, but it's subject to commonsense regulation" like background checks, Obama said during a news conference following the shooting deaths of six students, including the gunman, at Northern Illinois State University in February.
The local University teaches a carry permit class every week which is quite well attended each time. Many University students and faculty take the course, but the University will not allow any firearms on campus. When I was attending there in the sixties, my roommate had a 12 gage in the dorm room and used to shoot tossed tin cans on weekends int he parking lot out front. Campus police sued to come by and give it a try with their squadcar shotgun. No one was ever shot on campus back then. Now that weapons are banned, there have been two fatal shootings in the past three years on campus. Of course, when I was riding the school bus to school in the fourth grade, my older brother was on the rifle team and carried his .22 and a box of ammo to school on shoot days. No one ever shot people at schools back then. I happen to know the principle had a pistol in his desk from when I was sent to the office and he was cleaning it on his desk and finished while I sat fidgeting until he loaded it and put it away.
You can't carry on a military base, either. It's ridiculous.
He had no problem with students keeping their guns in their vehicles tho it was technically against the rules.
BTW, I used to date a little cutie from SWTS in San Marcos. Boy that campus was chock full of babes.
Concerning the university in my home town...
It is is not a good place to be late at night, and if you take evening classes or attend campus events there, that’s when you’re walking home.
You can call campus police to escort you, but that is an even worse idea. The people who take campus security jobs are basically the lower cruft of society and I think more sexual harassment complaint have been filed against the campus police than anyone else.
So if you are an attractive young lady who just wants to get to her freaking car after class without being raped, it sure would be nice to have a gun, don’t you think?
>while I sat fidgeting until he loaded it and put it away.
*gasp* - Storing a loaded handgun! [/sarc]
Sure enough, that very night around 250 Japanese who had been overlooked, sneaked into the airfield and killed a bunch before they were finally all killed. Fortunately a lot of Marines violated orders and kept some rounds.
I went to college in Maine as an 18 y.o. in 1974.
I had a Remington model 700 30-06 and a Remington Targetmaster .22 under my bed for 2-3 years. Nobody said boo.
Lots of folks had rifles because it was a hunting culture and nobody hid them.
The bongs we hid in the closet under our laundry...
I graduated from SWT in the 80’s. Man that was a fun time. We just won two Div II football titles and the women outnumbered the men 4 to 1.
Glad to see that the liberals haven’t overrun the school
In case you need to shoot one of your wives...
18 and over with parents permission slip and parents side arm.
When they get their ducks in a row, they will.
I believe that any student enrolled in ROTC and any teacher that passes comprehensive tests should be allowed to conceal and carry on campus. I do not think that the police will ever get there in time to stop it.
Pinging you Dave
The funny part is that by the time I’m 21, Obama will have been president for.... oh 7 months and I’ll still be living on campus another oh... 4 months. I have little hope that I”ll not have to go through hell after that to own a gun.
If the Constitution means anything, then it is their right. The Constitution does not make provision for age, btw. A 16 yo can be just as capable with a gun as a 21yo. Public and private schools should start to issue mandatory gun safety classes, so they know what to do with a gun at an early age.
That would be unlawful discharge.
Lived in the South my whole life. When I was 12, I met this redneck kid. He showed me where a piece of metal had slide down the inside of the skin in his wrist and made a gnarly scar. And went on to tell me how he carried a gun with him most everywhere he went. I told him he needed a permit for it. He acted surprised. I told him it would cost him $50. He laughed and told me he don't need to pay no 50 dollars to carry a gun around.
Anyway. I've never been in the military, but I'm going to college next fall and I will be a good marine.
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