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.
One of the biggest mass-shootings in history was from a University of Texas bell-tower; the man was later autopsied, and found to have a huuuuge tumor in his brain.
Why weren’t more people killed?
When he started shooting, many Texas students (and faculty) swiftly responded by simply shooting back at the tower —many of them had rifles in their trunks, dorm rooms.
In many cases, the sniper’s aim was spoiled, and he had to take cover within the tower.
We shall see soon enough.
Someone said that if every German Jew had a Mauser Rifle and six rounds of ammunition and the willingness to use it, Hitler would have been a footnote in the history of the Weidnmyer [sp?]Republic.
I hope that historians will not say the same about us. But we shall find out for ourselves soon enough.
Do not be lulled into a false sense of security, this man has every intention of carrying out the agenda of his associates.
Daffy always got the short end of the stick, and Elmer’s muzzle in his noodle.
If they deny an individual the ability to protect themselves, I assume they are taking on that job and should be held legally and financially accountable for anyone harmed as a result.
Weimar...
Thank you.
The Virginia Tech shooting occurred one year after Va Tech banned guns on campus.
That would be unlawful discharge.
Responsible students 21 and over? Yes, they should be able to carry.
Lots of attacks on females at the U of Oregon in the last couple of weeks. A couple of perps springing leaks would put a stop to it.
Yeah whatever. That’s just the law. You can’t fire a gun within the city limits. That’s dumb anyway. Shooting at cans? Go back in the woods and do that.
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