I got two examples in my e-mail this week alone of why university campuses need to permit concealed carry.
1. A girl who was out jogging on campus got grabbed, dragged into a nearby empty lot, and nearly raped.
2. Our campus is presenting on the A.L.I.C.E. program--Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate--for use in a possible campus shooting. The official who sent out the e-mail mentioned the "swarming" method of taking down an armed attacker, where students and professors throw stuff at the armed attacker, then group tackle him or her.
If my college's campus was not a weapons-free zone, the campus community would be safer. Criminals tend to avoid areas where potential victims might well be armed.
1 hour ago
I agree. Instead, campuses do things like install metal detectors and require people to wear ID on a lanyard - stuff that hurts the law abiding folks but really won't stop someone bent on doing harm.
ReplyDeleteI know some of my students carry hunting knives. And while you should never bring just a knife to a gun fight, I have no trouble with them having those knives in class. (I wouldn't mind guns, either, except I think most of my students who have guns have rifles or shotguns, and those tend to take up lots of room...)
The officer who taught my concealed carry course told me to ignore the no weapons policy when I went back to teaching on campus.
ReplyDeleteTo be perfectly honest, I'd been planning to anyway. I refuse to become, or let my students become, just another victim statistic.
IE: Many retail stores have
ReplyDelete'concealed' security forces, in that they don't wear a uniform.
I have always thought that such security should wear a uniform
to acknowledge their presence
in the store to prevent crime.
The same applies to a concealed weapon--have your pistol exposed (holster on hip)--should make someone think before doing something
whacko!
Except that only prevents the criminal from attacking *you*--unless he thinks he can take your gun away from you to use on you and on others.
ReplyDeleteNo, I'd rather the criminals realized that concealed carry meant that pretty much any of their victims could turn the tables on them. Makes them less likely to start something on someone who can't.
I was thinking in terms of the teacher with a holstered pistol on his/her waist........for all to see.
ReplyDeletePerhaps a warning sign: This classroom protected with concealed weapons?
If someone at Columbine had been carrying, what might have happened?
I'm honestly not sure what might have happened at Columbine. Most teachers--the good ones, anyway--love all of their students on some level. I'm not sure how many could have brought themselves to shoot two of their students, even if it was to save the rest.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, I was considering more on the Virginia Tech level. I teach college, and so does Ricki. If concealed carry were permitted on campus, non-trads, at least, would just as likely carry--and be just as trustworthy with it--as the teachers.
And should I go back to teaching on campus, and should I break the rules and carry, and should I have to use it, I would be fired. I don't have tenure, nor do I have the option of tenure. And I teach in a very left-leaning, anti-gun department.
That said, should it be necessary to protect my kids, I would draw down and fire, regardless of the consequences to me.
You're right--there would be a major difference between high school and college--I can't visualize a 13 year old freshman
ReplyDeletecarrying a weapon! (Arm the
high school faculty.)
Agreed. Though, I do know a few adults over the legal age to carry concealed (23 in Missouri) who have the same mentality as that 13 year old you envisioned. Thank God *they're* anti-gun, because I *really* don't want to imagine them carrying a loaded weapon.
ReplyDeleteActually, I think it's illegal for kids to carry any type of weapon throughout most of the country, unless they're hunting with an adult. They've even made it illegal in some places for anyone under 18 to buy a BB gun, even the ones that shoot the plastic pellets.
Maybe it's not an age issue, but
ReplyDeletea sensible maturity level.
I can think of three ranch family
(where I used to live before moving to town)--a total of (now)
6 young men, who learned "gun
control" as soon as they could hold a rifle! (one of them just got
an elk with a bow and arrow!)
I have encountered many young folks that shouldn't even handle a squirt gun!
"We are all created equal"--I don't think so!
Created equal in rights, and in the eyes of God, yes. Created equal in abilities? Yeah, not so much.
ReplyDeleteWe're already trying to teach the boy gun safety rules, and he can't even walk yet. I plan to teach him how to safely operate the airsoft pellet guns when he's big enough to hold them, and work him up to .22 as soon as he can. But he will be learning the rules, and the philosophy, to support a mature, responsible, reliable decision-making process where guns are concerned, as early as possible.
We'll be doing that with all of the kids we have.
Here's an instance where a man attacked a University of Central Missouri student in a parking lot. The woman used pepper spray to thwart the attacker.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.digitalburg.com/artman2/publish/UCM_News_72/Police_seek_man_who_attacked_female_student_in_UCM_parking_lot.shtml
The next night I had simultaneously three female students in our store looking for pepper spray...we were sold out. A bill to allow concealed carry on Missouri campuses was recently voted down by the legislature. My representative was one of the sponsors of the bill.
College campuses draw
ReplyDeleteall the sexual perverts--Seems
like there is some sort of attack
at CU Boulder every damn day......
Colleges need a volunteer militia
to guard their campus area.....(as well as a few well placed permits to carry...
TRICK OR TREAT!!
ReplyDelete