Posted on 04/18/2007 2:02:53 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
The deadly shooting rampage at Virginia Tech on Monday has reignited an emotional debate about whether students should be allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus.
Virginia Tech, like most universities around the country, forbids students from having guns on campus. But as an increasing number of states have passed laws that allow people to carry concealed weapons, gun advocates from Virginia to Utah have also challenged the academic policies that prohibit weapons at colleges and universities.
[Big Snip]
"Almost every college that has looked at this issue feels they can do a better job of protecting their students by banning guns on campus and taking responsibility to provide good security," says Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington. "I'm not sure any campus would like to advertise, 'Come to our campus. We have more guns per capita than any other campus.' "
When the issue is debated again as expected this year in Virginia, gun-control advocates will be lining up with members of the academic community in opposing an expanded presence of guns on campus. They believe the problem is that the country already has too many guns.
"We have access to these weapons, and there are people who get angry, and with that access they will use them," says Jim Sollo, vice president of Virginians Against Handgun Violence, a group with 800 members that advocates gun-control measures. "I fear that we will continue to have mass shootings here in the United States."
But gun advocate Mr. Van Cleave contends that control is not the solution. "Gun control only works with the good guys," he says. "Good people obey the laws. The people you're worried about don't. I don't think [the campus shooting] is going to bode well for gun control."
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
This debate will not end.
I myself fall into the "armed and prepared" camp..
I hope that it is never necessarry.
This is one mom who is preparing her children for University life - with a concealed carry permit and gun.
I consider you to be ‘smart’.
But that didn't prevent a wacko from having and using a gun on campus.
It only gave the rule-breaker an advantage over those who complied.
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “The deadly shooting rampage at Virginia Tech on Monday has reignited an emotional debate about whether students should be allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus.”
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OPINION: There should be no debate on this issue. There should be no emotions involved. Common sense should prevail.
The question that should be asked is this, “Should law-abiding, adult American citizens (who have no mental health restrictions) be allowed to legally carry concealed weapons?”
All those with common sense will answer, “Yes.”
All those who are stuck on stupid will answer, “No.”
Anyone who states that they are undecided (for whatever reason) needs to take a quick course in common sense 101.
How much easier can it get than entering a building, locking the entry and exit points with chain, and opening classroom doors to massacre at will? This incident may not repeat, but it will surely rhyme with another one in the near future. Unarmed populace is a sitting duck to psychopaths.
Don't go to parties with metal detectors
Sure it feels safe inside; but what about
all those n****** waitin outside with guns?
They know you ain't got one...
-Chris Rock.
I think the argument can safely be made, that we should take care of ourselves.
I reject any argument on being an unarmed victim. I reject the premise that people should be unprotected because some mindless bureaucrat decided that the Constitution doesn't apply specifically to them.
They liberal weenies at Va Tech will rail against guns, but many will go out and buy them. Just like Rosie screech’s about guns and has a body guard packing, liberals will feel they are more responsible.
The leftists actually believe that the gun made the terrorist crazy and that if people are allowed to carry guns, they will become crazy and start shooting people. I heard a caller to a program say, “but what if the concealed permit holder decides to start shooting people?” That is illogical in so many ways but the average lefitist cannot listen to facts. Many of them have a selective pacifism where they believe it is more moral for victims to submit and die rather than fight back — they have the absurd notion that a person who uses violence directed against an attacker is morally equivalent to a madman or terrorist who initiated the attack.
Just a thought...
Every student, faculty, and staff member must pay a fee to cover the cost of extra armed security officers for every university building. The fee is waived for those who can provide proof that they hold a concealed carry permit.
A simple fact that libs will ignore.
To the liberal idiots who claim the 2nd amendment is about state (i.e. government) rights, I would argue that the 1st amendment also only applies to government. The people are free to speak only through their elected representatives.
After all, speech can be a powerful thing (ask Imus) and the common people can’t be trusted with something so powerful! Only the government can be trusted with it.
So, every time a lib attacks our 2nd amendment (it’s ours, because they don’t recognize it), we need to attack the 1st amendment with equal vigor!
I almost got killed in college by a ‘roidhead wrestler armed with a Glock. Even after he discharged a firearm in a dorm at least twice, with an illegal unregistered firearm, in the state of NJ. Because he was the star wrestler at the college, the cops didn’t even take statements.
While I generally support concealed carry, I can’t support CCW on university campuses.
Big universities have way too many young men with way too little common sense and way too much machismo and alcohol/drugs to not have increased shootings.
Also, you have at almost every large university a self sustaining drug culture and drug trade, which would in some cases start a arms race between competing factions of dealers.
In the long term, even more cash strapped students would be drawn into the illicit gun trade, the black market opportunities create profit margins worth the risk.
University billing systems are way too porous for that. It’s like the newspaper in Virginia posting the list of every CCW permit holder in the state on their website.
A return of ROTC/target shooting clubs/shooting facilities at Universities would suffice in many ways. Just the publicity of the shooting squad, and free/low cost NRA gun safety courses being available on campus to the entire student body would go a lot further as the publicity multplies the deterrence effect.
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