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WEAPONS OF CHOICE
Colleges to allow guns on campus?
State assessing antidote to mad school shooters
Posted: March 03, 2008
9:53 pm Eastern
By Bob Unruh
Arizona lawmakers hope to stem the wave of unarmed students killed in campus slayings through a plan that would let adults carry firearms onto the grounds of the state's universities.
"The police got to both the Virginia Tech murder scene and the New Life Church [in Colorado] in about six minutes," noted Larry Pratt, the chief of Gun Owners of America. "At Virginia Tech, 30 people died. At New Life, two died in the parking lot and once the bad guy got inside the building he was engaged by (armed) security team volunteers and nobody else died. In fact, he was finished in about 30 seconds."
That, he said, ought to illustrate the issue as clear as anything.
In Arizona, legislation that would allow people to carry their guns onto community college or university campuses has been advancing, and now awaits further Senate action, after critics demanded public schools be removed from the plan.
State Sen. Karen Johnson, the bill's sponsor, said she was reluctant to make that change, because "I still feel our little kindergartners are sitting there as sitting ducks," she told the Arizona Republic. But Johnson said the remaining bill now has a better chance to move forward.
One recent vote on Senate Bill 1214, in the Senate Judiciary Committee, came just 11 days after a gunman killed five unarmed people and himself at Northern Illinois University.
Pratt noted that Utah and several local jurisdictions scattered around the U.S. already allow people with a license to carry their weapons onto campuses.
"We would like to see every state do something like that," he said, because of the tragedies that have been repeated multiple times in the past few years: a gunman starts shooting and killing people, they die, and then police arrive.
"Until we change that sequence, we're going to continue to have people become victims," he told WND.
"Clearly signs that say 'No guns beyond this point' are not a deterrent," he said.
Police chiefs from Arizona State University, the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona told the newspaper they fear confusion with having citizens armed would lead to more people being killed. Officers could, they warned, shoot the wrong person.
Lawmakers in Arizona told WND the legislation now is pending before the Senate. A Marine Corps veteran, identified as William, however, was urging action.
The veteran, who said he now works in security in Baghdad, wrote lawmakers:
The gun-control advocates at the Brady Campaign already has objected, however.
"Armed students? Armed teachers? That is the response of the gun lobby to the horrible massacre at Virginia Tech," the group said. "Despite the massacre at Virginia Tech, college campuses and schools are safer than the communities that surround them, precisely because those institutions have barred or tightly controlled firearms. We need to support those institutions, not strip them of the ability to control firearms on campus."
The group warned Nevada also has considered a plan to allow teachers to be armed, and South Carolina, Alabama, Michigan and Ohio are looking at plans similar to Arizona's.
WEAPONS OF CHOICE
Colleges to allow guns on campus?
State assessing antidote to mad school shooters
Posted: March 03, 2008
9:53 pm Eastern
By Bob Unruh
Arizona lawmakers hope to stem the wave of unarmed students killed in campus slayings through a plan that would let adults carry firearms onto the grounds of the state's universities.
"The police got to both the Virginia Tech murder scene and the New Life Church [in Colorado] in about six minutes," noted Larry Pratt, the chief of Gun Owners of America. "At Virginia Tech, 30 people died. At New Life, two died in the parking lot and once the bad guy got inside the building he was engaged by (armed) security team volunteers and nobody else died. In fact, he was finished in about 30 seconds."
That, he said, ought to illustrate the issue as clear as anything.
In Arizona, legislation that would allow people to carry their guns onto community college or university campuses has been advancing, and now awaits further Senate action, after critics demanded public schools be removed from the plan.
State Sen. Karen Johnson, the bill's sponsor, said she was reluctant to make that change, because "I still feel our little kindergartners are sitting there as sitting ducks," she told the Arizona Republic. But Johnson said the remaining bill now has a better chance to move forward.
One recent vote on Senate Bill 1214, in the Senate Judiciary Committee, came just 11 days after a gunman killed five unarmed people and himself at Northern Illinois University.
Pratt noted that Utah and several local jurisdictions scattered around the U.S. already allow people with a license to carry their weapons onto campuses.
"We would like to see every state do something like that," he said, because of the tragedies that have been repeated multiple times in the past few years: a gunman starts shooting and killing people, they die, and then police arrive.
"Until we change that sequence, we're going to continue to have people become victims," he told WND.
"Clearly signs that say 'No guns beyond this point' are not a deterrent," he said.
Police chiefs from Arizona State University, the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona told the newspaper they fear confusion with having citizens armed would lead to more people being killed. Officers could, they warned, shoot the wrong person.
Lawmakers in Arizona told WND the legislation now is pending before the Senate. A Marine Corps veteran, identified as William, however, was urging action.
The veteran, who said he now works in security in Baghdad, wrote lawmakers:
The gun-control advocates at the Brady Campaign already has objected, however.
"Armed students? Armed teachers? That is the response of the gun lobby to the horrible massacre at Virginia Tech," the group said. "Despite the massacre at Virginia Tech, college campuses and schools are safer than the communities that surround them, precisely because those institutions have barred or tightly controlled firearms. We need to support those institutions, not strip them of the ability to control firearms on campus."
The group warned Nevada also has considered a plan to allow teachers to be armed, and South Carolina, Alabama, Michigan and Ohio are looking at plans similar to Arizona's.
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