Guns are scary. BLAMMO! Someone dies. It’s so … violent. Sure, other forms of death are violent, too. If you’ve ever seen the aftermath of a particularly bad car crash, well, let’s just say it ain’t pretty at all. The thing that freaks out a lot of anti-gunners and firearms freedom fence straddlers: it’s so easy to shoot and kill someone! Of course, it isn’t. And it doesn’t happen that often, statistically speaking. But the idea of scary gun death is out there, somewhere. Actually, it’s right there, in the lead of every anti-gun editorial ever written. Like this one in Miami’s newsherald.com:
Guns and college campuses are a dangerous combination — as shown by an incident last month at the University of Florida.
On July 27, a gun was fired on the UF campus after an argument at a nearby bar. University police reported that the argument escalated into a fistfight in a campus parking lot, ending when a 25-year-old man allegedly pulled out a gun from his girlfriend’s purse and fired it into the ground.
A UF police spokesman told The Sun that he couldn’t recall a previous shooting incident on campus. To keep it that way, members of the university community need to work to defeat another effort to allow firearms on state college and university campuses.
Shock, horror! The Herald’s anti-campus carry anecdote somehow fails to tell us whether the girlfriend in question was licensed to carry a gun. It’s also pretty weak sauce. At the risk of seeming insensitive, you’d think they’d come up with an example where a drunken licensed concealed carrier shot someone’s face off. Which is why they try again . . .
“Young people are more prone to act impulsively,” Patti Brigham, chairwoman of the League’s gun safety committee, told the Miami Herald. “You’ve also got the issue of drinking on campus, and firearms and alcohol over and over again have been shown to be a really bad mix.”
Certainly the UF incident shows that to be the case.
Thankfully, no one was hurt. But a 20-year-old Florida State University student wasn’t so lucky when she was shot to death at a fraternity house in 2011 when a gun was accidentally discharged.
The incident helped lead to the defeat of a guns-on-campus measure in that year’s legislative session. But proponents keep bringing back the bill, despite unified opposition from university leaders, police chiefs and groups representing faculty and students.
Again, was the firearm legally owned (even if was illegally possessed on campus)? If not – and I suspect not – isn’t that proof that UF’s “no guns on campus policy” is a failure? Oh wait. They’d argue that it would be worse if legally owned firearms were allowed on campus. Only … there’s no proof that that’s the case. In fact, quite the opposite…
Law enforcement officials on campuses across Utah, where permit holders are legally allowed to carry, say that’s just not the case.
Officials at several universities, including the University of Utah, Utah Valley University, Dixie State College and Utah State University told IdahoReporter.com that though carrying guns on campus has been legal for nearly a decade, they haven’t seen evidence that their schools are less safe.
“We haven’t had much problem with it,” said Steven Mecham, head of the Utah State University Department of Public Safety. “It’s just not been an issue.”
Reached via email, University of Utah spokeswoman Maria O’Mara told IdahoReporter.com, “We have had no incidents on campus regarding this law.”
Ah, but if denying Americans their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms on campus saves just ONE life . . . Uh, no. One lost life – like the negligent discharge death cited above – does not justify creating campus “gun-free zones.” Not even a dozen. Besides, how many lives have been saved, how many rapes prevented, by innocent Americans carrying a firearm on campus? Shouldn’t we consider that context?
While we’re at it, isn’t this anti-campus carry crusade a bad landing at the wrong airport? Hello? What about alcohol? That legally sold product poses significantly more danger than legally held guns on campus. You want anecdotes? Here are a few representative samples from Recent Alcohol-Related Student Deaths-Complete Listing [via compelledtoact.com].
[University of Kentucky student] Connie [Blunt] died in a hit-and-run accident crossed against the traffic signal and stopped in the street for unknown reasons when she was crossing South Broadway. The police accident report says that Connie Blount had been drinking that night before she was struck.
[Gannon University student] Abrielle [Marie Brynda] was found unresponsive in an alleyway between two downtown buildings. The coroner concluded that she lost her life because of complications from hypothermia “in a setting of acute alcohol intoxication.”
[Clemson University student] Marc [Anthony Cocozzella] was thrown from the bed of a pickup truck after his friend, who is accused of driving drunk, ran into two other cars. Marc died two days later.
I didn’t include any deadly alcohol-related car wrecks; they account for a good portion of a list that’s as long as it is tragic. You’d save a lot more lives by banning students from keeping a car on (or off) campus than than you would by prohibiting them from arming themselves on campus.
B-b-but guns! Once again, we’re left with the feeling that the anti-guns-on-campus jihad launched by the News Herald, the Florida League of Women Voters and others against campus carry isn’t really about student safety. It’s about protecting the dependency culture beloved of America’s economic and political elite.
[Note: if you have a college-aged child, please encourage them to click on the link above. And teach them about safe gun handling. And choose a school that allows campus carry.]
Declare college campuses alcohol free zones. Since campuses will be alcohol free it should be safe to carry on campus.
Do I always have to add a /sarc to posts like these?
The failure to recognize sarcasm is a sure sign that someone takes themselves too seriously.
I second that. If they just treated alcohol the way they want to “treat” “gun violence”, or should we call it “Alcohol Violence”?
“Nearly 88,0009 people (approximately 62,000 men and 26,000 women10) die from alcohol-related causes annually, making it the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States.” from the CDC
-Have background checks to buy Alcohol.
-Create a registry of alcohol purchasers and criminalize straw “person” alcohol sales.
-Limit the amount of Alcohol that can be purchased and possessed.
-Prohibit Felons from buying or possessing Alcohol.
-Have a Alcohol Violence registry of persons that are caught in the commission of a crime that have alcohol in their possession or have alcohol in their system during the commission of a crime, remove the “loophole” of blood level alcohol allowances.
-Enact Safe Alcohol Storage laws.
-Tamper proof Alcohol containers with mandatory sentences when they are circumvented or when Alcohol not stored in accordance with the law.
-Have a Permitting for the purchase and transportation of Alcohol.
-Prohibit the sale and possession of Alcohol from persons with restraining orders.
-Prohibit the sale and possession of high proof Alcoholic beverages.
These are just a few commonsense Alcohol Violence prevention measures that could be enacted NOW! /SARC
Ohhhh… I like this idea…can I grab this to post on other forums?
First of all: I didn’t drink in college. I let the guys take me out for my 21st birthday, but that was it. So, I’m pretty confident in my ability to control myself.
Second: my freedom to exercise my natural rights is not dependent upon the ability, or inability, of my peers to comport themselves responsibly in their exercise of those rights.
Well said…
It isn’t about the individual anymore , Chip . It’s about the collective . Everyone else’s fears and suspicions trump your God endowed and constitutionally enforced individual rights . The constitutional Republic has been excised .
The Constitutional Republic has been dead for at least four generations.
I would agree in principle to your statement but having devoted much research , discourse and debate to the subject I could give a respectable argument to the contrary . This is neither the time or place and it isn’t actually related to the subject of this blog . I do understand your point and will give you the floor now . We will know soon what the progressives have planned for gun grabbers because they believe this is their last dance for awhile .
It would make more sense to ban alcohol on campus, that would save more lives then banning guns. But you can’t do that because alcohol is legal to sell and you can’t ban something that is legal to sell. Oh wait, guns are legal to sell also, (just not as popular). When you try to argue that kind of logic the gun banners just look at you funny and change the topic. Or in the case of my sister just says “that’s stupid” their go to argument for when they don’t have a counter argument.
While we’re at it, why don’t we ban sharks, poisonous snakes, grizzly bears, and any other scary thing that might kill and even eat you. It’s amazing what some people fear even when the chances of injury or death are less than that of being struck by lightening (ooh – ban that too).
If you assume your child is going to illegally drink on college campuses, then what does that say about your parenting?
Additionally, “college-age” doesn’t mean what it used to. Almost every classroom will have someone in their 30’s nowadays.
If you assume that your child is not going to illegally drink, then you are woefully naive. It isn’t a result of bad parenting, it is a result of bad laws that let America’s young people go to war and give their lives for their country, but not have a drink when they are back home.
That whole wait until you are 21 to drink is working so well on college campuses . . . And they would never ever do drugs because they are illegal . . .
How about the university presidents that actually want to lower the drinking age?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amethyst_Initiative
Oh, hell–more “blood running in the streets” crap? And the best they can come up with is one intentional discharge where no one was hurt and a fight was stopped, plus one fatal accident? These idiots get soooo tiresome.
Big kudos to the cops for being handed a chance to to shout gunz-r-bad and not taking it.
Alcohol and guns were all over my college and have been in all colleges for years. It has never been that big of an issue. What changed to make college campuses more dangerous? The answer is that they are not more dangerous. Less dangerous in fact. This is more solution looking for a problem like the “mass shooting” FUD from “Mothers Demand Action Tonight”.
They do realize that Prohibition was a failure, right?
They do also realize that the “War on (Some) Drugs/Crime/Poverty” is a failure for exact same reasons, right?
Why oh why do they keep believing that a prohibition of guns would be any different?
Legally obtaining a permit to carry a firearm , when done under the correct supervision , is actually a reason to heighten your awareness and increase responsibility . Theoretically , it should stop a lot of careless drinking among young people who normally suffer from the ‘ I am invincible ‘ syndrome . Carrying a deadly weapon gives one pause to ponder ones own vulnerabilities , which is usually a good thing . It is sometimes referred to as maturity .
It is because of today’s total decay in morality and fundamental religious ethics that we see most of the violence perpetrated against such innocents among us . Children growing up with one parent or three parents or four and sometimes more , or none at all . No children having any background in ethics either through a church environment or even through schools , because of such fears in being politically correct about everything , our kids are left on their own to form their own rules and standards in a consumer driven commercialized world where getting the next techno marvel is all that matters . It is what our founders warned us would happen time and time again when they established our republic form of governance . If we ever became a culture without a fixed moral compass we would by public decreed lose our freedoms for the good of public safety . The balance is very delicate and if allowed to swing to far in either direction the opposing back swing could be destructive at the least and require a reboot .
It is because of the current climate and position on the moral decay scale that I would be in favor of a prolonged evaluation of character before issuing anyone a license to carry concealed .
I have no problem however with anyone who chooses to express their constitutional right to carry openly . This allows me to profile the individual as to their balance .
I went to a University where there is an alcohol ban and we still couldn’t carry. The reason is “because…safety”. I say it all the time, I don’t understand how I am not a person as soon as I step foot on campus. The glory of academia has no place for rights. If you want to question the policies of Universities and Colleges you must first understand those institutions run off blood money; they allow an 18-year-old to have unlimited credit for an unlimited amount of time with zero credit history, no income, no guarantee of future income, no skills, no experience, no idea what to expect in the job market in terms of income potential, and no clue of the impact of those student loan debts. Oh, and student loans do not qualify for any traditional debt resolution and aid programs that can combine with other debt. On top of all that the Institutions teach these people old executive-level tactics that they will never put to use because they will never get to those positions. The capacity of those jobs Colleges train people for is tiny compared to the number of graduates, so guess what, they don’t end up in their field with decent pay. Some hold out for that good job the College promised (aka 0 income living with parents) while most end up either going back to school (for a second round of debt) or working whatever job they can (our last waitress has a master’s degree).
Why does any of that matter? Because Universities and Colleges can only survive when people think they need to go to those institutions. The only way to do that is misinform, keep people in the dark, or outright lie to people, both students (parents, ect) and employers. Sometimes I wonder if these institutions knowingly lie to people or are just so misinformed themselves they think it’s still the late 80’s or early 90’s (where all their business strategies and tactics taught come from). Either way they’re making money. Look at the recent trends with “microagressions” and “trigger warnings”. Colleges are actively removing critical thinking and any ideas that might offend anyone at any time, otherwise people might figure out they’re better off not spending the rest of their lives paying the College for a piece of paper that didn’t help them in any way. Colleges are strongholds in the fight against responsibility. They are there to instill a sense of helplessness by opening your eyes to problems without solutions and so many other things that have no real significance in the name of learning. Taking personal responsibility for your safety is not an option in the image of a socialist utopia colleges create, taking personal responsibility for how you pay for the time you’re there isn’t an option, nor is any personal responsibility. Think about the messages of Colleges; “you deserve an education (get loads of debt)”, “everyone deserves a great paying job (we wish we could assign jobs like in Soviet Russia)”, “you deserve to be safe (we make little effort because you don’t always get what you deserve)”, “everyone deserve to find what makes them happy (try out every major and never graduate so you can pay us for 10 years worth of classes)”. As you can tell I’m somewhat upset with Colleges even though I did get my degree, am in my field, have only a little debt, and love what I do and what I get paid.
TLDR; Colleges screw people royally so why would you expect them to honor basic rights? Colleges are an important part of the war on responsibility.
With great rights and privileges come great responsibilities. The idea that these thoughts are independent from one another is absurd. Precedence shows that people who concealed carry on average believe this and is reflected in statistics such as the significantly lower commission of crimes by permit holders compared to the general population.
The “wild west” that keeps getting pushed has as of yet to show up in places that legalize concealed carry. Even Illinois/Chicago has not been the dooms day scenario that the people kept getting told it would be. Although there will always be isolated incidents they tend to be minor compared to the potential for the good that can be done.
“The Coddling of the American Mind”
by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt
The Atlantic got something correct with that article, and it applies to this one because it explains the lack of critical thinking and the rise of the wussification through political correctness. It is an honest assessment of the indoctrination process that is happening within the Statist Propaganda ministry, or institutions of higher learning.
So, someone used a firearm to immediately stop a fist fight without any further injuries. How is that a bad outcome?
According to gun-grabbers, it would have been better to let the fist fight continue until one person beat the other to a pulp and caused serious bodily injury, permanent injury, and/or death. Remember, violent attackers killed more people last year with their hands and feet than with rifles and shotguns.
Personally, I much prefer the outcome where the fist fight stopped immediately without any further injury to anyone. If a firearm precipitated that result, fantastic.
You’d think that gun-grabbers want to be able to get into fist fights and not worry about the consequences of getting into such fights.
It never seems to dawn on these people that in all seven (now EIGHT) states that allow campus carry, this just doesn’t seem to be an issue.
But using the exception to define the rule is textbook Alinskyism, so why are we surprised?
The moment of death is universal. Arguing it is not is insanity.
Maybe the anti-gunners are trying to convey the moments prior to death. It appears they would prefer a slower painful death? They are saying it is less likely for you to die at the hand of an ice pick than a firearm? Again, the answer is not the mechanism used, it is the human operating it. If they ever had something to say worth listening too, I would be happy to give them a head-nod. But they haven’t yet and I am not holding my breath because that is too slow a way to conclude my moment.
I’m a teetotaler, and they still use this argument to deny my rights and endanger me. Because others might not act responsibly, they say. Lock us all up in cages, why don’t you.
While I was in college, a student at another university not too far away died from stumbling and falling down a stairway. I submit we should ban stairways on campus.