Re: Living for 32-Anti-Gun Comes to my TX Campus
Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 1:38 am
I attended the screening tonight, and the segment on campus carry is surprisingly balanced (it includes several strong statements by campus carry proponents such as Suzanna Gratia Hupp and SCCC President David Burnett). I disagree with many of the positions promoted by the film, but the stuff on campus carry actually doesn’t have the stench of propaganda that one might expect. The film stakes a clear position on campus carry, but the information isn’t provided in a heavily-edited, deeply-skewed Michael Moore sort of way (the film wasn’t actually produced by the Brady Campaign).
We've known about this event for a little over two weeks, so I don't think anybody tried to slip it in under the radar.
I’ve read, watched, and listened to everything I can find on Colin Goddard, and I’ve never heard him claim that he stopped the shooting by calling 911. FYI, the shooting actually lasted ten to twelve minutes, not six minutes.
Colin certainly spins the facts to support his position, but I think he actually makes a fair attempt to be truthful in his statements. Tonight he even clarified the difference between the requirements to purchase a machine gun and the requirements to purchase a semiautomatic rifle, in response to an audience member who made a rambling statement about people being able to walk into gun stores and buy machine guns.
I don’t think it’s fair to question Colin’s motives just because he’s being paid for his involvement. Most of us working with SCCC would welcome the opportunity to take home a paycheck for what we do (as it is, we’re virtually—if not literally—bankrupting ourselves for this cause).
Campus organizations are obviously welcome to host any speakers or films they wish. Suzanna Hupp spoke at UT earlier this week, and John Lott spoke at UT last semester. However, colleges are not allowed to use official resources to encourage students, faculty, or staff to lobby one way or the other (they can say, “You’re invited to attend a screening of this film,” but they can’t say, “Go to the Capitol, and lobby against this bill”). We’ve brought it to the attention of another Texas college that they recently violated this statute, and they seem to be making a reasonable attempt to rectify the situation (they’re looking at ways of offering us equal time).
I felt that the question and answer portion of the evening was quite telling. Colin is clearly more interested in talking about the gun show loophole than about campus carry, and I felt that most of the panel (with the possible exception of John Woods, whose organization Students for Gun Free Schools deals almost exclusively with this issue) was ill-equipped for the two or three difficult questions about campus carry that they received. When asked what can be done to protect students, faculty, and staff in that time period between the start of a shooting spree and the arrival of police, they talked around the question. When asked what students, faculty, and staff should do if they find themselves in a campus shooting, all three panelists (Colin Goddard, John Woods, and the head of the Texas State University Police Department), sat silently, trying to think of an answer (the MC interrupted and said something to the effect of, “We’ll give you some time to think and come back to that”). When asked how a campus environment is different from a movie theater, a shopping mall, or a music festival, the head of the campus police responded that campuses are not fundamentally different from those other places and that the training for first responders is pretty much the same for any of those locations.
There were probably 50-60 people at the screening, and I honestly don’t think that either this film or the subsequent conversation is going to sway the campus carry debate in Texas.
We've known about this event for a little over two weeks, so I don't think anybody tried to slip it in under the radar.
I’ve read, watched, and listened to everything I can find on Colin Goddard, and I’ve never heard him claim that he stopped the shooting by calling 911. FYI, the shooting actually lasted ten to twelve minutes, not six minutes.
Colin certainly spins the facts to support his position, but I think he actually makes a fair attempt to be truthful in his statements. Tonight he even clarified the difference between the requirements to purchase a machine gun and the requirements to purchase a semiautomatic rifle, in response to an audience member who made a rambling statement about people being able to walk into gun stores and buy machine guns.
I don’t think it’s fair to question Colin’s motives just because he’s being paid for his involvement. Most of us working with SCCC would welcome the opportunity to take home a paycheck for what we do (as it is, we’re virtually—if not literally—bankrupting ourselves for this cause).
Campus organizations are obviously welcome to host any speakers or films they wish. Suzanna Hupp spoke at UT earlier this week, and John Lott spoke at UT last semester. However, colleges are not allowed to use official resources to encourage students, faculty, or staff to lobby one way or the other (they can say, “You’re invited to attend a screening of this film,” but they can’t say, “Go to the Capitol, and lobby against this bill”). We’ve brought it to the attention of another Texas college that they recently violated this statute, and they seem to be making a reasonable attempt to rectify the situation (they’re looking at ways of offering us equal time).
I felt that the question and answer portion of the evening was quite telling. Colin is clearly more interested in talking about the gun show loophole than about campus carry, and I felt that most of the panel (with the possible exception of John Woods, whose organization Students for Gun Free Schools deals almost exclusively with this issue) was ill-equipped for the two or three difficult questions about campus carry that they received. When asked what can be done to protect students, faculty, and staff in that time period between the start of a shooting spree and the arrival of police, they talked around the question. When asked what students, faculty, and staff should do if they find themselves in a campus shooting, all three panelists (Colin Goddard, John Woods, and the head of the Texas State University Police Department), sat silently, trying to think of an answer (the MC interrupted and said something to the effect of, “We’ll give you some time to think and come back to that”). When asked how a campus environment is different from a movie theater, a shopping mall, or a music festival, the head of the campus police responded that campuses are not fundamentally different from those other places and that the training for first responders is pretty much the same for any of those locations.
There were probably 50-60 people at the screening, and I honestly don’t think that either this film or the subsequent conversation is going to sway the campus carry debate in Texas.
