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Making School Safer by Arming Students

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Modern School Donating Member (558 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Mar-24-11 10:36 PM
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Making School Safer by Arming Students
This just in from Change,org: The Texas House has approved a new law allowing college students to carry concealed weapons on campus. While it is understandable that people are nervous in the wake of several recent shootings on college campuses, including one last year at the University of Texas, Austin, it is complete lunacy (and a statistical fallacy) to think that an increase in guns will somehow reduce gun injuries.

The plan is spearheaded by a group called Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. One of its members, Scott Lewis, was quoted by Change.org: "We're basically fish in a barrel. . . This is about changing the odds."

As is often the case, people like Lewis are reacting with emotion, in this case hysterically, in response to a scary, but relatively rare occurrence. Well over 90% of the violence against students happens off campus. The vast majority of violence that does occur on campus is not the result of guns, at least not yet. Once students are allowed to carry concealed weapons, routine arguments and misunderstandings may start to escalate into shootings. There will also be an increased risk of accidents, as happened this year at a Los Angeles high school, when a students’ concealed weapon accidentally discharged.

University of Texas, Austin, grad student Aron Weinberg believes that the law will indeed increase violence and accidents and has started a petition at Change.org against the new law. The chief of campus police, Robert E. Dahlstrom, and the city police have also come out against the concealed carry law.

Modern School
http://modeducation.blogspot.com/
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msongs Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Mar-24-11 11:14 PM
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1. and pre schoolers and kinders too, hell give everyone a gun in Texas :-) nt
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AndyTiedye Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-25-11 01:53 AM
Response to Reply #1
4. I Thought Everyone in Texas Already Had a Gun or Six
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provis99 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Mar-24-11 11:50 PM
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2. hell, lets make prisons safer by arming the prisoners.
Let's make airplanes safer by arming the passengers. Let's make Disneyworld safer by arming Goofy. Let's make bars safer by arming the drunks.
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glinda Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Mar-24-11 11:58 PM
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3. Enrollment intentionally will drop due to fear especially from parents of their kid getting shot.
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Douva Donating Member (10 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-11 09:28 PM
Response to Reply #3
9. Oh really?
Utah public colleges have seen record enrollment every semester since they began allowing licensed concealed carry on campus.
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Loki Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-25-11 06:28 AM
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5. By God I want guns in everyone's hands
because there are crazy people out there with guns, and you just can't trust any of them. They might shoot ya, and you have to be ready to shoot them back. Yes siree, guns for everyone. Show em how to carry in pre-school, so they can get ready to carry in kindergarten. By God, we'll be a safe country then. We don't need no stinkin age requirement, it's against my absolute Second Amendment right. My Second Amendment right trumps every other right out there. Don't mess with it, and don't mess with Texas. Yee Haw. Do I need to add this :sarcasm:
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ProgressiveProfessor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-25-11 09:38 AM
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6. The blog is being disengenuous
There are some basic limits, including that the students have to be 21 and have the proper paperwork. Concealed carry paperwork is also required. There will not be drunk freshman frat boys packing heat. States that already allow this have not had significant problems.

I am allowed to carry on campus today and do most of the time. I do not fear violent students, it is that the parking lots are unsecured and I do not want to leave a weapon on my motorcycle.

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Hangingon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-25-11 11:41 AM
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7. unrec for misinformation
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Douva Donating Member (10 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-11 09:27 PM
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8. From W. Scott Lewis
Watch my full testimony, and then tell me that I'm "reacting with emotion, in this case hysterically":

http://www.house.state.tx.us/video-audio/committee-broadcasts/committee-archives/player/?session=82&committee=420&ram=11031614420 (My testimony starts at 01:43:00.)

You'll note that when I said, "We're fish in a barrel," I wasn't referring to college students in general; I was referring to a specific class full of students in a very specific situation.

Of course, doing some actual research on this subject (i.e., seeking out my actual testimony, rather than forming an opinion on the basis of the paraphrasing in one biased article), takes a little bit of effort. For those of you willing to put forth that effort, here is some more information that might interest you:

http://www.StudentsForCampusCarry.org (PDF)
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Douva Donating Member (10 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-26-11 09:32 PM
Response to Reply #8
10. A Few of My Op-Eds on the Subject
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Taitertots Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-27-11 02:05 AM
Response to Original message
11. The Empirical data proves that expanding legal carry is not dangerous
I encourage anyone against it to try to find some empirical data that supports their position. This article is nothing but unsupported assertions and speculative non-sense.

"Once students are allowed to carry concealed weapons, routine arguments and misunderstandings may start to escalate into shootings."
Empirical data proves that this is wrong for everywhere else that allows concealed carry.

"There will also be an increased risk of accidents, as happened this year at a Los Angeles high school, when a students’ concealed weapon accidentally discharged."
There are more guns than ever being carried legally in more places than ever, and yet there has been no correlated increase in firearms accidents. Empirical data proves that these laws will have no effect of firearms accidents.

"it is complete lunacy (and a statistical fallacy) to think that an increase in guns will somehow reduce gun injuries."
And yet that is exactly what has happened across America. More guns than ever, carried in more places than ever, and gun injuries are not increasing. The blood in the streets fantasy has never come to pass despite continued gun rights expansions.
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