The Second Amendment, the right to bear arms, the right to self-defense, and the right to obtain a concealed carry permit after fulfilling proper training requirements are all very important liberties to me. I am a lifelong champion of the Second Amendment and the core right of citizens to defend themselves. That is why I paid close attention as two bills dealing with concealed carry on college campuses were heard recently in the Senate Transportation, Infrastructure, and Public Safety Committee, in which I serve.
Currently, state law bans concealed weapons on our college campuses and these bills would repeal that aspect of state law. Senate Bill 731 and Senate Bill 589 are the bills in question. Testimony was lengthy and often passionate with many Second Amendment advocates arguing in favor of the legislation and many academics from across the state arguing against them.
During testimony about this legislation, it was pointed out repeatedly that mass shooters can kill many people in the time it takes for police to arrive. Some statistics show, on average, it takes just over 12 minutes for law enforcement to respond to an active shooter situation. Statistics from mass shootings show a person is killed nearly every 17 seconds. To me, it makes sense that law-abiding citizens with proper training can save lives in an emergency situation like this.
Testimony also raised legitimate concerns over securing firearms in crowded and small dormitory rooms. As these bills move through the legislative process, I will be open to fair compromises, but I will hold steady in my belief that law-abiding students and staff that can safely secure their firearms have a right to concealed carry on campuses.
Current law in Missouri allows 19 year olds to get a concealed carry permit, which means many college-aged Missourians can obtain a concealed carry permit. College staff are typically all of age to obtain a concealed carry permit. It is important to note that these permits require hours of training. Background checks are completed, training is completed, and the permit is issued by the local sheriff’s department.
Criminals carry guns with no permit and no training. Mass shootings happen in gun-free zones and I believe that leaving our campuses as gun-free zones actually puts our students at risk. Criminals do not follow the law, stating a place is a gun-free zone means nothing to them.
I have visited with college students and staff that want concealed carry on their campuses so that campuses will no longer be a soft target. I believe the Senate bills 731 and 589 are both good pieces of legislation, which make our state and our students safer
Not so much "need guns", which is putting words into his mouth, as they need to be able to effectively defend themselves, which means guns.
ReplyDeleteFor most people in the US, I've read and believe, if for no other reason than my own personal experience, that there will never be a time in their lives where they are at more risk from criminal attack than when they are attending college. And of course our betters insist that a woman in college has a 1 in 5 chance of "being raped†"; it's it unconscionable to leave them defenseless in the face of their enemies.
† Really, just a extremely lose definition of sexual assault, but if they're going to insist women on campus are under danger so severe we must throw away the Rule of Law in expelling accused students, they're smoking some powerful stuff when they turn around and insist women should not be allowed to defend themselves from these attacks they insist are so frequent and severe.
And as I've previously noted, this is already the law of the land in Colorado, Idaho, Mississippi, and Utah, the latter allowing guns in dorms, and the results have been utterly unremarkable. So much so that when Colorado passed its new gun and magazine restrictions in 2013 they dropped the effort to take away this right on their campuses.
More guns in more hands resulting in more victims. When will we learn the folly of just buy more guns.
ReplyDeleteMore guns in more hands resulting in more victims.
ReplyDeleteCute theory, but it has to be abandoned because the evidence doesn't support it.
Gun ownership and concealed carry licenses have been growing very rapidly while both crime and accidents with guns have been dropping. The only exception to this is very recent, in big Blue cities, most of which don't allow citizens to legally carry guns (and Chicago only very recently), where the Ferguson Effect has caused the police to stop trying. That said, crime is still dropping overall because of what's happening outside of these cities.
Forget conceiled carry, let's just all strap big irons on our hips and have callouts at high noon.
ReplyDelete