AUSTIN, TX – -(Ammoland.com)- For the past nine years, Students for Concealed Carry has consistently made the case that college campuses are not immune to violent crime and that vetted, licensed adults should, therefore, enjoy the same measure of personal protection on campus that they’re allowed virtually everywhere else.
Yet every time there is a shooting at a supposedly “gun-free” college or university, opponents of campus carry point to the incident as if it somehow proves the dangers of laws and policies allowing the licensed, concealed carry of handguns at institutions of higher education—laws and policies that clearly played no part in a shooting on a “gun-free” campus.
Immediately following the first reports of Wednesday’s murder-suicide at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the blogosphere and social media lit up with claims that this murder of a university professor, by a student who then took his own life, somehow proves that Texas’ campus carry law, which takes effect August 1 2016, places professors in the crosshairs of students agitated about failing grades or controversial classroom lectures.
The people who espouse that view are unswayed by the fact that this shooting took place in a state that recently made it a crime for a license holder to possess a gun on a university campus; the fact that none of the 100+ U.S. college campuses that allow licensed concealed carry has seen a single resulting murder, suicide, assault, or suicide attempt; or the fact that most colleges and universities lack any type of screening measure to prevent someone (e.g., a disgruntled student intent on shooting a professor) from bringing a gun onto campus illegally.
If this premeditated shooting at UCLA calls any policies or laws into question, it is the policies and laws denying law-abiding professors the means to defend themselves where they’re most vulnerable.
Michael Newbern, assistant director of public relations for Students for Concealed Carry and a part-time instructor of engineering economics at Ohio State University, commented, “Many opponents of campus carry live so far inside the bubble that every campus shooting, no matter the circumstances, reinforces their simplistic view that guns plus college equals tragedy.”
“At Students for Concealed Carry, we prefer to look at the specific circumstances of a shooting and the totality of the evidence regarding campus carry. Our sympathies are with the families and friends touched by this tragedy, but we will not sit idly by while this incident is misconstrued as somehow reflecting lawful campus carry.”
ABOUT STUDENTS FOR CONCEALED CARRY — Students for Concealed Carry (SCC) is a national, non-partisan, grassroots organization comprising college students, faculty, staff, and concerned citizens who believe that holders of state-issued concealed handgun licenses should be allowed the same measure of personal protection on college campuses that current laws afford them virtually everywhere else. SCC is not affiliated with the NRA or any other organization.
For more information on SCC, visit ConcealedCampus.org or Facebook.com/ConcealedCampus. For more information on the debate over campus carry in Texas, visit WhyCampusCarry.com.
Its no wonder they did not catch the muslim slime if they were all doing what that cop in the picture is doing. Holding univ. people on the ground in arrest mode while looking around everywhere else.
Did anyone forget about the gun confiscation after Katrina hit? Who was able to stop the confiscation or arms?
The police do NOT have the “right” to detain those people in the immediate (gun-free zone) area… they simply have the tacit permission of higher-level authorities (police administrators, District Attorneys, etc) TO do whatever they please in those gun-free zones.
I watched the postings as they came in and I was horrified at the blatant abuse of everybody’s Constitutional rights. Guns were pointed at people coming out of buildings that were not where the shooting happened. Unlawful searches. My God, it looked like a North Korean police action. What a disgusting and flagrant abuse of power. Then the Bruin News telling everybody to shelter in place and barricade their doors (since there were no locks on them) was equally disgusting. The people of California have been inculcated to be cowards, and to hide anytime something goes wrong. But I guess… Read more »
the photo of “security personnel” detaining those poor schleps who happened to be walking by, the incident well over and done with, depicts the insane reaction, no basis in fact, of LE to any shooting incident. Hey, guys, the shooting is over, the perp is dead, his gun laying there on the pavement, and the poor prof has bled out on the sidewalk. Nothing more to do but take the pictures and measure everything and comb the area for the three spent shell casings that all certainly came from the gun lying on the sidewalk. THE INCIDENT IS OVER, why… Read more »
The photo with this article presents some interesting conflicts. This is a “gun free” zone, the police are detaining citizens for no just cause, as by definition, people in a gun free zone aren’t carrying guns. None of the people in this photo have visible guns, nor suspicious bulges where guns might be hidden. Since the police have no reasonable suspicion that any of these persons are violating the laws, what right do they have in detaining them?
Who’s going to stop them?
Who do you call when the police are the ones terrorizing you?
The idiots in CA, NY, Chicago and NJ all have a death wish. I want to be shot without the ability to defend myself. I then want to know that the thug who killed me is not going to be executed, but defended by a slimy scum lawyer who will first try to say the criminal did not shoot me, his gun did, and he wasn’t there but studying the bible with Mom and Grandma! He is innocent and because he is black this is all racist! Gun free zones are the real deaths of many people. The prof. at… Read more »