More silliness on Erwin’s gun bill
Posted by BrianThe Gadsden Times chimed in on Alabama Senator Hank Erwin’s bill to allow trained, screened ROTC students carry weapons on campus with an editorial titled: Sponsoring potential shootouts.
With the memory of the Virginia Tech shootings still on people’s minds, Sen. Hank Erwin, R-Montgomery, pre-filed a bill for the next legislative session that would let college students meeting certain conditions carry guns for self-protection on campus.
Or that’s the theory, at least. Once a student has a gun on campus, the reality is, he or she could use it for anything he or she wanted - and so could anyone else who gets access to it.
Just stop right there. We are talking about adults who are soon going to be officers in our military. They are old enough to own a gun, have a concealed carry license, and take said gun virtually anywhere. I suppose the Gadsden Times, as well as other editorial boards across the state, feels they shouldn’t be allowed to carry anywhere since they clearly aren’t able to exercise proper judgment.
Perhaps an armed student or instructor could have stopped the mentally disturbed [Virginia Tech] student before he claimed so many lives. But having another gun in the scenario could have led to more bullets flying and someone feeling pressed to risk their life rather than trying to seek shelter, with no positive change in the body count.
Some people just don’t understand. The point of having designated people carrying on campus is not for them to engage in shootouts. The point is to let any would be assailants know that they will not necessarily be walking into a gun free zone. These individuals, mentally stable or not, are cowards. They brazenly enter an environment where they assume there will be unarmed people and feign strength and courage as they shoot at hapless students from close range. But as soon as law enforcement (or an unexpected gun owner in the crowd) begins to engage them they almost always turn the gun on themselves demonstrating their ultimate cowardice. I don’t recall hearing about too many crazies charging into police stations or NRA meetings to cause carnage. No, they pick the low hanging fruit: the gun free zones.
There are many things that go on at college campuses beside shooting rampages that make us leery of the idea of encouraging guns there: Students get despondent over grades, or breakups with a girlfriend or boyfriend.
In other words, they’re ready to ship off within a year or so to fight in a war zone, but they aren’t rational enough today to cope with bad grades without turning the classroom into the OK Corral.
There is often drinking to excess at college parties, and sometimes college students don’t exercise the safest judgments.
The vast majority of those drinking parties (in my day at least) happened off campus where the individuals in question, as well as every other legal adult, could presumably carry. The bill has nothing to do with parties.
The Montgomery Advertiser featured a similar editorial.
On the all-time list of really bad ideas, this one belongs near the top: An Alabama state senator has proposed legislation to allow certain college students to carry guns on campus.
Ponder that for a moment. It is a recipe for disaster.
…
There is so much wrong with Erwin’s bill that one hardly knows where to begin addressing it. For one thing, it’s important to be realistic about the threat he seeks to thwart. As unspeakably awful as the Virginia Tech assault was, it was an isolated action by a seriously deranged individual.
Such acts are exceedingly rare. A statistical study conducted by the Department of Justice found that the overwhelming majority of violent acts involving college students — 93 percent — took place off campus.
Based on the Advertiser’s logic we shouldn’t entertain Erwin’s proposal, or any other proposal to prevent such violence, since such acts are “exceedingly rare.”
A gun skills course, required as part of Erwin’s bill, is a useful exercise. The safe operation of firearms can be taught in that way. However, a one-time training course cannot be expected to give those who take it a great deal of judgment in the use of firearms.
More calling our future military officers a bunch of dumb-dumbs.
It certainly cannot be expected to prepare an individual for the use of firearms in a tense situation.
Good point. Let’s call the pentagon and tell them to release all of those ROTC students from their service commitments. They aren’t going to be able to handle walking the streets of Baghdad. They can’t even be expected to protect a classroom here in Alabama!
While we’re on the topic, here’s a video worth watching.
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December 17th, 2007 at 8:33 am
I carried one in college at UAB as I lived in a rough area and had to go through rougher ones to get there.
Which is worse? a shootout or a bunch of executions?
December 17th, 2007 at 8:45 am
At least three editorial boards in AL would prefer students to be executed until law enforcement can arrive.
December 17th, 2007 at 9:37 am
They all probably live in cozy ivory neighborhoods and don’t have to worry about it.
December 17th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
[...] an idiot and Kristopher independently came to the same conclusion. Brian supports the bill and lists some of the many editorials around the state that disagree with [...]
December 18th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Typically the newspapers in AL don’t represent the views of its people. I read on Just One Minute in an article about NJ abolishing the death penalty that AL was thinking of the same thing. This was based on a newspaper editorial asking for abolition. Crazy.
December 22nd, 2007 at 12:29 am
Color me conflicted on this one! As we discussed when we met at Pantera, I fully support eliminating ‘gun free’ zones. But on the other hand, looking back, I recognize that I did not have the maturity or training as an undergrad to carry.
Only after being in the military and actively carrying did I begin to understand the concept of ‘use of lethal force.’ It ain’t taught in ROTC, but should be in any ‘carry’ course.