Anti-Texas Campus Carry Petition Trips over Inconvenient Truth

By David Codrea

USA – -(Ammoland.com)- “Overturn SB 11 ‘Campus Carry,’” busybody hoplophobe and legislative process ignoramus Sara Peters of Portland, OR, demands in a Change.org petition to the Texas State Senate, State House and Governor. When the petition was posted is unclear, but it looks like the earliest signature and comment was made 18 days ago, and at this writing they still have over 700 signatures to go for a total goal of 2,500. That’s in spite of being open to signers from all states and, per a drop-down country menu, from anywhere in the world.

So much for grassroots clamoring.

“They’re taking our oases of education, some of the most important institutions in our country, and using them as laboratories to test the limits of gun rights,” Peters whimpers in self-righteous angst. “And putting hundreds of thousands of students at risk in the process.

“Guns have no place on our campus, or any campus,” she insists, just like she actually knows what she’s talking about. “These places should remain institutions of higher learning, free from the worries that guns and violence bring. Our college campuses, where we harbor and educate our future, are not the place to experiment with gun rights.”

So much for an argument that forgoes emotion and convinces with unassailable logic. Maybe if she’d added a blurb about unicorns, her unwitting contention that predators should have a free pass and plenty of defenseless victims would resonate strongly enough to put the signature tally over the top. Then again, perhaps there’s a reason such a modest goal was picked in the first place.

But that’s not where Peters demonstrates how someone who presumes to teach doesn’t even belong in the classroom without some heavy deprogramming and plenty of prerequisites, starting with the fundamentals. Because to make her point, she brings up UT Austin sniper Charles Whitman and his 1966 bloodbath as the reason why everyone who’s not a psychotic monster must ensure they’re vulnerable to those who are.

If Peters — and the historically-ignorant “feel safe” cud-chewers who signed her petition — looked at what happened then, perhaps some would come to the realization that with “progressives,” every day really is Opposite Day. It might also dawn on them that the ones forcing campuses and society to be “gun rights experiments” in a “laboratory” are the ones making that charge. Because the test results for the example she cited have been in since 20 minutes after Whitman started shooting, and they clearly show guns do belong in schools, and defenselessness only invites more deaths.

But don’t take my word for it—check out what actually happened in 96 minutes back before the era of modern “gun control.”

Students waited and waited for the police to arrive. [A]t that time, the Austin Police Department had no tactical unit to deploy. Its officers had only service revolvers and shotguns, which were useless against a sniper whose perch was hundreds of yards away … Some officers went home to get their rifles; others directed traffic away from campus.

The “when seconds count” slogan” comes to mind.  And when that’s the case, what’s the only option for denying a madman the blood he craves?

In the absence of any visible police presence, students decided to defend themselves.

Really? And just how did they do that?

Graduate student James Damon retrieved his $15 M1 carbine and helped keep the murderer pinned down. Senior Cliff Drummond recalled “Students with deer rifles … firing like crazy back at the Tower.”

Junior Forrest Preece “saw two guys in white shirts and slacks running across the lawn of the Pi Phi house, hustling up to its porch with rifles at the ready.”

Brenda Bell, who sounded like she might have signed Peters’ petition, said “vigilantes … took over Parlin Hall and were crashing around, firing guns. There was massive testosterone.”

Sometimes, protests of jealous, ashamed (and thus bitter) weaklings notwithstanding, that’s what it takes.

Ph.D. candidate J.M. Coetzee noted “lots of people around me in Austin not only owned guns but had them close at hand and regarded themselves as free to use them.”

There are plenty more recollections, but perhaps the most powerful comes from Bill Helmer, who admitted:

I remember thinking, ‘All we need is a bunch of idiots running around with rifles.’ But what they did turned out to be brilliant. Once [Whitman] could no longer lean over the edge and fire, he was much more limited in what he could do. He had to shoot through those drain spouts, or he had to pop up real fast and then dive down again. That’s why he did most of his damage in the first twenty minutes.

So much for the main argument used by the pro-murder lobby, that more guns would mean more people shooting each other in crossfire fiascoes, and that cops would have no idea who the bad guy was. People who aren’t nuts and evil, that is, otherwise peaceable gun owners who only resort to defensive gun uses when other options won’t work, don’t behave the way the monopoly of violence zealots and their media talking point parrots would have everyone believe. Rational adults are more than capable of identifying just who it is threatening them with deadly force.

The upshot of the Whitman story is that these armed students and citizens kept human carnage to a minimum, allowing the authorities to mobilize and neutralize the threat. Guns preserved the peace and kept people safe.

And none of the “vigilantes” went on to shoot up schools themselves, even though the only thing to stop them from trying would have been their own moral codes. Because signs sure don’t work. Neither do foolish petitions signed by ignorant hand-wringers.

It does make it fair to ask a question, and feel free to answer it yourself:

If a murderer suddenly started killing people, who would you rather have by your side? Armed students, like those who kept Charles Whitman from adding to the body count, or Sara Peters and her merry band of whiny herbivores?

The Whitman story reminds me of the last time I wrote about it, or at least about the movie, almost 20 years ago, back when I was doing newsletters for the NRA Members’ Council of Westside Los Angeles. The file I created has long since disappeared, but I did save a hard copy, which I scanned and posted as an addendum to this column.

And since we’re talking Texas universities, there’s an update to the story about the nutty professor who taped a “No Guns” sign outside his classroom in spite of Texas law, and school “speech and expression” policies. UTEP President Diana Natalicio responded to my email, demonstrating why she is the perfect “progressive” choice for a “Higher Education Visionary” award (as long as you keep that Opposite Day truism in mind).

[Via Jake S]

About David Codrea:

David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating / defending the RKBA and a long-time gun rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament.

He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and also posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.