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Young Americans Want Their Liberties, Too!
by Rick Walker

Students for Concealed Carry on Campus

USA - -(AmmoLand.com)- Have you ever seen an article in the news that makes you wonder where the country is headed? The ones I’m talking about concern young people who tend to show their ignorance of and lack of interest in things like the Second Amendment and gun rights?

Well, there is a large number of young folks out there who are working as hard as you are to ensure we get to keep those rights. The group I’m talking about is the Students for Concealed Carry on Campus.

Imagine this scenario: You are at least 21 years old. You have a concealed carry permit, issued by your county’s sheriff. You have decided that you want to start a local organization of like minded people. It would be for social and educational purposes such as enhancing knowledge and sharing information. You are told by the local government that you cannot do such a thing, purely due to it being related to guns. Nor would you be able to locally advertise in support of such an organization. And you certainly would be denied the use of any of the government’s facilities to have a meeting of such people. Use the “Community Center”? Well, not in this community, you don’t.

Wouldn’t you be outraged at such treatment?
Especially when this treatment is prohibited by state law and the US Constitution? Well, it is happening right now, all over the country! The great news is that there are many of our very best young Americans (and some not so young) working very hard to change this situation. It is called the Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, and they are continually working to eliminate such restrictions where and when they find them. And they need your help to do more of this very important work.

Here are some examples:

From a then-24 year old freshman in Pennsylvania: “When my college tried to infringe my freedom of speech because they did not want me talking about my Second Amendment rights, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education came to my aid. If you google my name it will not be hard to find the news stories about it. ”

“I won, though it took 7 months to teach my college about the 1st Amendment, forcing CCAC to retract its unconstitutional solicitation policy and allow me to form a chapter of SCCC on a campus where a dean had told me “this would NEVER be allowed here” and I will win every battle like this because I am on the side of liberty and justice and anyone who opposes me is doing so out of an emotional fear and will not have a rational argument. If you find yourself in any similar situation I will help, and I will find help for you. “

Imagine a public college denying a citizen the 1st Amendment right because they wanted to use it to promote 2nd Amendment rights! However, this is more common than it should be – so we need to stand up and make ourselves heard. Just like she did.

Fox News’ Kelley Beaucar Vlahos reported at the time that . . . .

“The latest flare-up involves Christine Brashier, who says officials at the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) violated her First Amendment right to free speech when they stopped her from posting and distributing fliers advocating for concealed carry on campus, and for a new chapter of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus (SCCC) at the college. The group has about a dozen chapters on other Pennsylvania campuses, Shibley said.

“I genuinely wanted to start discussion on the topic,” Brasier told FOXNews.com this week. ” I am not such an avid gun owner as much of the news has made me out to be — I simply believe in liberty and that college is the place for a debate about important issues such as this one.”

Brashier maintains she was hauled into a meeting with the dean, who told her “that the club would never be approved, that the school did not wish to discuss the topic, and to cease speaking about it as well as destroy the literature.” David Hoovler, a school spokesman, told FOXNews.com that “Brashier was a good student and that the incident had nothing to do with the issue of firearms on campus. The student government has the authority for approving campus organizations, he said, (emphasis added) and it’s all about procedure”.

But is it really about procedure?
Or about control, and treating students like children? This is certainly not treating people like the voting-age, non-criminal adults that they must be to obtain a concealed carry permit. Again from the  Fox News article:

“In March (2009), Central Connecticut State University student John Wahlberg and two classmates gave a presentation for their communications class on whether the death toll at Virginia Tech might have been smaller if faculty and students had been allowed to carry guns. That night, Wahlberg says, he was called into the campus police department, which already had a list of his registered guns, which were locked away off-campus.”

“Wahlberg’s professor had reported him to security out of “safety” concerns, according to The Recorder, the campus newspaper. Certainly, campus officials and campus law enforcement are against the idea of more guns in private citizens’ hands at school.

Lisa Sprague, president of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, said the group put out a position statement after the Virginia Tech incident against concealed carry on campus. They say there is “no credible evidence to suggest that the presence of students carrying concealed weapons would reduce violence on our college campuses,” and could even serve to create more dangerous situations.”

Well, in the current case before the courts in Colorado, the proof that Ms. Sprague says she is seeking is plain for all to see.

During the timeframe that concealed carry was allowed on campus, the last seven years, the crime rate at that campus went down, significantly and steadily. It is now at about one third of its former level. Rapes have fallen 84%. Shouldn’t this get someone’s attention in a positive way?

Nearly lost in that current battle is the fact that the students at CUS have done a perfect job of not having any incidents involving those firearms that they carry. Is that not a “double win”? Less crime and none of the bad outcomes the administration, Brady and Violence Policy Center keep warning us about? Ah, sorry, you must be dreaming of an earlier time . . . .

This year, the CSU Faculty Policy Committee, decided a “feel-good” gun ban was needed. The student body clearly is opposed to this policy. Imagine their shock when the University’s Board of Directors, led by the president of the university, overturned the vote of the student body! Aren’t the administrators the ones who have kept saying it is all up to the students in their ability to self-govern? Another lie, obviously. It apparently means you can do what you want, students, as long as we agree.

What a way to set the example! They just want you to think you have say over your lives. Well, you can still vote, can’t you?

Are you outraged yet?
Are you ready to act? If you are thinking “no, not in my state, not at my son’s and daughter’s campus”, you are, unfortunately mistaken. This IS the case in the vast majority of campuses across the United States. Think it does not apply to you, just because you are older? Wrong. Think it doesn’t apply to you because you are a retired law enforcement person. Wrong again. Former military? Again, you are mistaken.

Everyone, not just students, is prohibited from carrying a gun on most campuses except active police. As indicated by the three robberies in the last month on our local University of Washington campus, this policy does not seem to work, preventively speaking.

So, what are you going to do about it? Whatever it is, start now. Educate your children and grandchildren about the importance of their rights wherever they are, including college campuses. Have them join SCCC. And you can too. Take action yourselves to help bring these schools to their senses concerning the basic human right to self-defense, let alone the right to carry on campus. This effort is primarily won or lost at the local and state level, and there is where we most need your help.

We also need campus leaders, state and regional directors, and not all of them need to be active students. We also need trainers and advisors for campuses to help them learn the “right stuff,” and to assist them with the pursuit of changes to local and state laws and regulations.

They also need your advice, your knowledge and your connections to ranges, training, state, county and city politicians and law enforcement officials, and to prospective donors who might be willing to help their fight for human rights. Welcome to this part of the fight to restore the basic rights of adults. Volunteer early and often!

Please email us at CCM@concealedcampus.org for more information, and to learn what you personally can do to help in your specific area, on the campus of your choice.

We want to thank very much the US Concealed Carry Association for helping us to bring this important message to you. And if you want to sign up your favorite college student with USCCA, please go to our website (http://www.concealedcampus.org/) to do so. USCCA has agreed to make a donation to us for everyone who joins their group through ours. Same great USCCA benefits and prices, while helping our young people continue SCCC’s important work.

What is Students for Concealed Carry on Campus?
Born out of the Virginia Tech shootings, and raised through the magic of the Internet, SCCC began as a Facebook page. It was formed for the discussion of this single issue, on-campus carry. This became a very hot topic as the story at VA Tech unfolded in April of 2007. Seemingly overnight, the members of the Facebook page grew extremely fast. It went from zero to over 20,000 members in a very short time. The organization grew from below, finally getting campus, state and national leadership in place.

There was no shortage of volunteers from among the students and even some from the staff and faculty of colleges and universities around the country. Communications became difficult as the number of members, now nearly 43,000, overwhelmed Facebook’s limits. SCCC has leaders at almost four hundred campuses in nearly every state in America. If you search Facebook for groups under “Concealed Carry students” you will see 381 different groups. Your favorite campus may be among them.

Note: All SSSC members are unpaid volunteers.

Author: Rick Walker, SSSC board member, USCCA member, Colonel, US Army, Retired

Thanks to Christa Brashier, Kacey Cooper, David Burnett, and Jim Manley, SSSC Regional or State Directors, for their contributions, as well as Fox News

About:
United States Concealed Carry Association is The Most Comprehensive, Up-To-Date Resource for the Law-Abiding, Armed Citizen. Visit: www.usconcealedcarry.com

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A Brutal Defense – The Fighting Attitude for the Disabled & Use of the Common Cane
There is no fair fighting in a fight for your life or limbs…
by Cody Alderson

United States Concealed Carry Association

USA - -(AmmoLand.com)-  Civilians have a very difficult time understanding that a defense cannot be played out as if one is the good guy in an old western. There is no fair fighting in a fight for your life or limbs. Untold numbers of new concealed carry first-time class goers invariably have the fellow student who asks, “Can’t I just shoot him in the leg?”

By our very nature we are not of the same ilk as the sociopath who targets us. This very fact of our nature makes it difficult for the civilian, who most likely has never been involved in a life or death violent encounter, to take the appropriate defensive action unless it has been successfully ingrained by repetition.

Repetition of rote training of draw, fire, assess, as well as things like tap and rack to clear a jam. It needs repeated over and over again until the muscles have been trained to the point of being able to duplicate the complex maneuvers, the same as how repetition finally allowed us to successfully drink from a cup instead of a bottle with a nipple on it.

Repetition helps a fit civilian to begin to even the odds in a violent encounter, but the attacker is by default at an advantage simply for being the attacker. Civilians are further disadvantaged by (thankfully) not having to regularly endure life or death violent encounters. Direct experience builds points of reference to draw on and learn from for future events that may occur. A battle hardened warrior who has seen much combat has knowledge that a civilian does not, and hopefully never will, have.

A civilian defensive operator (my term for the civilian with a permit to carry a concealed weapon) who is disabled in one way or another is more disadvantaged than a fit civilian with no handicaps. The disabled are more likely to also be a preferred target of many a sociopathic predator.

A gun is a great defensive tool for many of those with varying degrees and types of disabilities. Of course a gun is a lethal or deadly force weapon that can only be used to defend one’s life in the event that one is in imminent fear of death or grave bodily harm. (This is based on my state of residence. The reader needs to know the specifics of law in his own jurisdiction.)

Though in theory a disabled person needs to practice defensive maneuvers more than most fit individuals to attain the best level of proficiency attainable, it is actually less likely that a disabled person will, in fact, practice more. The disability may prevent a regular regimen of scheduled practice.

So for the disabled who are reading this article, let me encourage you to incorporate into your life some structured practice that is followed as religiously as possible.

Let’s put the gun training aside for this article and focus on developing an instant and explosive counter to an initial attack from a predator. Let’s say for purposes of this article that you can readily interpret the language of when the first strike is coming. For our scenario, you do have a holstered gun on your body but have not been justified in displaying it or using it yet.

We can’t walk or wheel around with our gun held in our shooting hand within the confines of normal public society. That cashier at the convenience store would be just as upset as your waitress at the restaurant if you tried that. And I know that the officer you may encounter won’t be happy to see that gun in your hand. But actually having a weapon in your hand is advantageous for repelling a sudden violent attack. A gun inside a coat pocket with that shooting hand in a proper grip is the next best thing, but even this is not a perfect fix to gaining an advantage. Actually, there is no “perfect” fix, but there are some that are better than others.

If your disability requires you to use a cane, this will be right up your alley. If your disability is evident or visible in public, then I do recommend considering the addition of a cane as an always-with-you accessory. Even if your disability has nothing to do with your legs, if you can incorporate the use of a cane, try it for awhile.

Not just any cane either. Try a regular wooden crook handle cane. No fancy handles, no metal with push button extension pieces, just plain wood with the crook handle. I’m trying to get a manufacturer to make one out of a particular polycarbonate that will look like wood, but take extreme abuse. I haven’t heard back from them as of the date of this article submission.

If you use a quad, or other specialty cane due to the particulars of your handicap, then you can adapt some things I’m going to talk about. The reasons I recommend the plain cane is that it gets through just about every security checkpoint easier than anything fancy ever will. Security is on the lookout for sword and other types of cane weapons, but a plain cane is just an adaptive device to enable the disabled.

I am a very big advocate of teaching defensive operators to not call attention to their selves. We should not want to look like the person who is carrying any sort of weapon. Oh I can hear it now. “What about looking dangerous to criminals?” Yes, there is merit in presenting yourself as aware and confident. But if you have a visible handicap, you are already higher up on the “pick me” list for criminals.

A cane in the hand of a disabled person is a weapon that can be instantly deployed. It is also very versatile. It can be used in a fashion to allow time to draw a primary weapon, it can be used in instances that a gun cannot, and it can also be used as a primary lethal force weapon.

I would really like everyone to realize that they aren’t as tough as they think they are, but I’d especially like . . . Oh how do I say this politely? I’d like all of us old, fat, handicapped guys to particularly realize it! Although there are most certainly exceptions to the rule, it is more likely that a twenty-two year-old hoodlum will be able to run faster, jump higher, and hit harder than a seventy year-old retired Buick salesman.

This makes the brutality of defensive response to a physical attack of great concern to me as I consider how one should respond to attack if he happens to be disabled to one degree or another. There are so many legal considerations I wouldn’t be able to address them here.

Know your laws in considering what I’m about to say.

The defensive operator is the only one who can truly judge what to do if attacked. Laws are in place to judge those who go beyond what society has considered an appropriate response. The disparity of force issue comes into play when a disabled person is attacked by a so-called physically fit criminal.

I could fill a book with subtle dynamics of force response as could any person who teaches or discusses this stuff. So instead of selling you an encyclopedia, let’s just stick to basics. A muscular hoodlum punching an old woman in her face to take her purse could very well kill her with a solitary punch. That same old woman cracking her cane over the thug’s head may only raise a slight welt.

Sure there is the possibility of a freak accident happening where the old woman causes a concussion inside the thug’s head that could lead to his death, but statistically for the mentioned scenario, it is unlikely.

So let me just repeat instructions that I gave to my mom who walked with a cane, but did not carry a gun. She knew how to use one, but didn’t carry. I remember her racking a twelve gauge out an open living room window when two criminals were trying to break into the house through the basement door when I was a kid, but she didn’t carry.

My mom died a few years ago. When she became a frail senior I taught her what to do to up her odds of surviving a violent encounter by utilizing her cane. I taught her all about the more sensitive areas of the human body that civilian martial arts schools teach to avoid in sparring and training.

I taught my mom to attack the face of an attacker with as much force as she could physically muster. I taught her that blinding a criminal trying to hurt her with any sharp object, or even using her fingers, was more preferable to me than having to attend her funeral or visiting her in the hospital.

I taught her that slamming that cane up into the throat of an attacker in hopes of cutting off his ability to breathe was better than her getting her hip broken by him shoving her down onto a sidewalk.

I taught her to only go a bit lighter when hitting an attacker’s testicles for the simple fact of how the brain responds to trauma. When trauma is severe, the brain cuts off the full effect of pain. A smack to the testicles will allow more pain to be felt than what would be felt from a really hard hit.

The point is to cause pain to an attacker as well as to physically make it impossible for him to continue his attack. A disabled person has to be choosey about where they hit an attacker in the act of self-defense. Punching the attacker in the stomach would not be disabling if my mom was the one hitting the hypothetical attacker of my instructive sessions. Whacking his ears, elbow or wrist joints, bridge of the nose, or throat with that cane of hers would cause pain at a threshold high enough to allow small amounts of time to mount an even more aggressive counter attack.

A hard smack of a wooden cane right in the lips, at the temple, and at the base of the skull can work wonders to deter all but the most determined attackers. The problem was that my mom wasn’t strong enough in her frail years to inflict enough trauma to an attacker to make it physically impossible for him to continue an attack.

However she was strong enough to target and sustain multiple hits on an attacker who had not yet caused her any disabling trauma. She probably could have kept hitting for about thirty seconds to a minute under the influence of adrenalin. Couple that with screaming her head off, and she might have had a chance against some attackers.

So there it is. The disabled need to really put their all into hitting vulnerable pain causing, and disabling areas of an attacker until either the attacker gives up, help arrives, or a gun is successfully deployed and employed (if appropriate).

Having a weapon in hand at all times while out in public is of great benefit. And a plain old wooden crook handle cane that easily gets through most security without questions is a great tool to add to the repertoire. Even if you don’t need a cane, I’d still recommend considering the benefits of having one with you where firearms aren’t allowed.

If a friend asks why you have a cane at the school play, you can explain your need of assistance with that bum knee, ankle, leg, hip, foot, or whatever is causing some problems occasionally. No need to even lie because as we age stuff starts to hurt. If you are out among strangers, they have no idea what your handicap is or isn’t.

Seriously, have you ever wondered if that person you see with a cane actually is handicapped or not? If it’s not that obscure uncle who you know is scamming a disability claim, then we just don’t think about it. However we do pay more attention to fancy or quad canes by nature. That’s why I recommend the plain old cane.

A cane in the hands of a moderately disabled person can be quite an effective self-defense tool. In the hands of someone who is mildly disabled it is even more effective. Wrap a leather wrist strap around it so it can’t get knocked out of your hands. That’s the only accessory I would recommend.

The cane can strike, leverage, poke, hook, and so much more. It can help you back to your feet, and even help stabilize to prevent going to the ground. And it doesn’t take years of practice to be able to do a good amount of counter attack damage. Try one.

Think about how well it may have worked to whack a few nuts with box cutters who changed the way we look at everything here in our Great Land. A cane can be carried in more places and with less scrutiny than any other weapon. That’s because it isn’t a weapon until it is used as a weapon.

About:
United States Concealed Carry Association is The Most Comprehensive, Up-To-Date Resource for the Law-Abiding, Armed Citizen. Visit: www.usconcealedcarry.com

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