When what you're doing isn't working, try something different.
As the latest shooting at Northern Illinois University demonstrates, declaring college campuses and schools "gun-free zones" doesn't prevent mass shootings. Police simply can't get to the scene of shootings fast enough to prevent the taking of several lives by a quick, determined attacker.
More and more people are asking the question: Is it time to try something completely different, like allowing students and faculty to carry concealed weapons on campus?
From USA Today:
Even before a gunman killed five people and injured several others in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University, a small but growing movement had been underway at universities and state legislatures to allow students, faculty and staff to carry guns on campus.Twelve states are considering bills that would allow people with concealed-weapons permits to carry guns at public universities. The efforts were sparked by the Virginia Tech massacre last April.
Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, an Internet-based organization with 11,000 members in its Facebook group, is calling attention to the issue with a protest from April 21 to 25, a week after the one-year anniversary of the shootings at Virginia Tech on April 16.
CAMPUS HORROR: Gunman kills 5, self at Northern Illinois University"The only way to stop a person with a gun is another person with a gun," says University of Cincinnati sophomore Michael Flitcraft, 23, a mechanical engineering major who has a license to carry guns but is prohibited by university rules from bringing one onto the campus.
So far, 1,600 students on 500 campuses have signed up on Facebook to participate in the protest by wearing empty holsters to class. W. Scott Lewis, the group's spokesman, says about 530 students from 125 campuses joined a similar protest in October."School is the only place I'm not allowed to carry my weapon," says Washington State University senior Kristin Guttormsen, 35, one of the group's student leaders. He carries a .40-caliber Taurus Millenium Pro handgun.
"I felt defenseless and it started to bug me, especially with all the school shootings," he says. "We're not talking about convincing people to get licenses, we're talking about people who already have their licenses. And for the most part, they are older students."
South Dakota is the latest state to join the debate. The state House approved a bill last week that overturns the policy of the state's six public universities prohibiting guns on campus. A state Senate committee voted down the bill on Monday, but efforts continue to push the bill to the full body for vote. Other bills are pending in Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington.
It's difficult to fathom the degree of nihilistic depravity that motivates school shooters. Children and young adults who have been raised properly, or even within generally reasonable parameters, do not suddenly "snap" and slaughter dozens of their classmates. Many, many things must go wrong before a school shooting takes place. It is appalling that they have become almost routine news.
We don't need more dead students. Every campus needs a fighting chance to stop would-be shooters in their tracks.
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