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The smoke is beginning to clear after last week's shooting at the University of Texas where a 19-year-old math major ran through campus firing an AK-47 before tragically taking his own life.
Fear and shock swept through campus and the rest of the city. It wasn't long after the shooting that people began talking about the unsafe and ill-conceived bill that would have allowed concealed handgun owners to bring their guns on campus that very nearly passed in the Texas Legislature in 2009.
With a new legislative session set to begin in 2010, pro-gun advocates will once again be lobbying for opening up college campuses to concealed handguns. What should really be on people's mind is the question of why guns are so easy to buy in Texas.
Guns on campus advocates say that allowing concealed weapons on-campus would make students safer from both on campus shooters and from everyday violent crimes.
This is a ridiculous assertion especially when you look at the fact that the Texas Association of College and University Police Administrators (TACUPA) said in a statement that allowing handguns on campus would "further dilute the efforts of campus law enforcement to provide for the safety and security of the communities" they serve.
According to TACUPA most crimes on campus are not violent, and students are generally safer on campus than in the community outside of campus. In 2009 TACUPA came out against a bill in the Texas Legislature that would have allowed concealed handguns on college campuses.
Simply multiplying the number of people with weapons is not going to make a campus safer. Concealed handgun carriers are not police officers. Shootouts between handgun wielding students and dangerous shooters are not what we want on campus. City and Campus police exist for a reason.
The real problem centers on why guns are so easily bought and sold in Texas. The answer to the problem of a possible deranged gunman on a college campus is not to have more guns on campus. Instead of trying to get more guns in more places, what we really should be looking at is how and why assault rifles like an AK-47 are so easy to purchase.
A recent report by Mayors against Illegal Guns, a 500-member bi-partisan coalition of U.S. mayors, shows that guns from Texas are being used in crimes all over the country and Texas is one of the top suppliers of guns used in the drug war in Mexico.
Guns bought and sold in Texas are being used in violent crimes across the country and abroad.
The conversation we should be having now is not about allowing handguns on campus but about how we should be enforcing the laws we have that regulate the sales of deadly weapons. We should be asking ourselves if we need new, stricter regulations. Should a 19-year-old be allowed to own an AK-47?
More people with more guns on campuses will not make us safer. Proper and strict regulation of who gets to buy dangerous weapons can have a positive effect on safety on and off campus.
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6 comments
John Woods lost 2 Martial Arts students to Cho.
Martial arts isn't a match against an armed attacker when you can't grab a magazine.Government compiled reports show that the majority of the time, Students and staff/faculty are the "first responders" much like bystanders were in Tucson. Jared in Tucson used those "foot-long" magazines which were easier to grab, whereas Cho, at Virginia Tech, and George Hennard at Luby's used short "regular sized" magazines which were impossible to grab, so each racked up higher body counts than Jared did. I'm glad Jared had an easy-to-grab-foot-long magazine, else it could have been even worse.. Colin Goddard couldn't grab a magazine, so he played possum and relied on the decision of Cho to let him live or not. A "reduced capacity" or "crippled capacity" magazine is one where you add additional parts to decrease a law-abiding citizen's chance for survival against multiple attackers by limiting them to 10 rounds.Jared in Tucson used those "foot-long" magazines which were easier to grab, whereas at Virginia Tech, Cho used short "regular sized" magazines which were impossible to grab. So, Colin Goddard played possum and relied on the decision or mercy of Cho to let him live or not.Soon, those "foot-long" magazines may be banned, so we'll be under the same conditions as Virginia Tech, or Luby's or other places shooters used short magazines which were faster to reload and impossible to grab.Thanks a lot. Legislators should perform a proper "diagnosis" before writing a "prescription" which can cost lives.
http://tijuana.usconsulate.gov/tijuana/warning.html
How's that workin' out for them?
2,600 dead this year?
Thank God Our country recognizes our right to protect ourselves, except inside college campus buildings.
amendment rights. That effectively eliminates 855 of all gun control laws from affecting a felon.So many more facts and points the idiot gun control extremists refuse to acknowledge