I happened upon an opinion article by Cynthia Tucker about campus carry in Texas, and it’s not much different from others out there that are against similar legislation. Cynthia, like so many others, fail to realize who the law-abiding concealed carriers are, and likes to couple us with criminals and crazies.
She first points out how college students sometimes misbehave, and that adding firearms on campus will lead to some sort of disaster. She also mentions how sometimes, police can’t find their mark when discharging their firearm and if they have such a hard time with it, how can we expect civilians to be any good at it?
I could write on this topic all day and night, but there are really just a few points that I’d like to make clear to Cynthia, and they’re coming from the part of my brain that handles common sense.
The first part is about misbehaving college students. We all know that this is true, but don’t forget that people who legally carry firearms are typically much better behaved than the average person. They take it as a responsibility, and they don’t take it lightly. The ones carrying are not the ones out binge drinking.
As for people missing their mark –if they even discharge their firearm in a self-defense situation in the first place– it is almost a moot point. Most train, and most times the mere presence of the firearm is enough to stop the threat from advancing. I’ve done enough reporting on self-defense stories to know that the overwhelming majority of them don’t come with injured or killed bystanders.
But wait, there’s more!
There is a very real danger that some student will kill another on campus.
Or kill a teacher with whom he or she has a disagreement.
Or go on a rage-fueled spree and kill several people.
Texas, especially, ought to know better. It was the scene of one of the nation’s earliest spree shootings, in 1966, when former Marine Charles Whitman fired from the clock tower on the campus of the University of Texas in Austin.
Again, Cynthia (like so many others), forgets that the referenced shooter above was breaking the law. He was looking to kill people. He was doing so…illegally. That’s right; it’s illegal to kill people! Whether guns were allowed on campus or not, he still would have been there with a gun.
And to suggest that a student would go kill a teacher after a disagreement, just because campus carry is legal… is just insane. How is this even a valid argument?
It’s mind-blowing to think that people still use these as their defense against the legal carry of firearms.
Cynthia ends with this;
Unfortunately, the Texas Legislature has trampled the memory of the dead.
Maybe instead, Cynthia, they’re trying to ensure better protection of the living, so that history is less likely to repeat itself and create more tragedy.
