ZeSpectre
Member
EDITORIAL: Glock Blocking
Posted on September 8, 2008
SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS have long been a hot-button issue for social conservatives, military enthusiasts and hunters — and now, your average college student.
Students for Concealed Carry on Campus is primarily dedicated to striking down college gun-control policies, which restrict people from locking and loading before coming to campus.
Skirting the tiresome legal arguments and the idea of preventing a violent culture, SCCC focuses on the idea that, by carrying guns, we will never have to use them — like an arms race.
For a group that uses a massive amount of statistics in its arguments, it’s curious that SCCC finds its impetus in statistical outliers — though the Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University shootings were horrific, are they truly valid bases for widespread policy? The scenario SCCC paints is compelling: helpless students slaughtered because they cannot arm themselves. But how does that stack up against thousands of armed students and faculty on a daily basis?
Don’t forget that the ultimate reason to carry a gun is to be able to fire it.
Some are less than thrilled with our university’s current gun policy, which prohibits anyone from carrying a gun on campus. On the other hand, many are uncomfortable with the thought of allowing loaded, lethal weapons on campus.
If concealed carry were allowed on JMU’s campus, any student, faculty or staff member might very well be within firing range at any given point. Silence on this issue might be taken as consent.
Any thoughts?
SCCC’s “Answers to the Most Common Arguments” against its cause can be found on its Web site, concealedcampus.org.