After months of reading articles like this: http://m.knoxnews.com/news/2011/mar/03/ ... ges-safer/I felt it was my duty to respond. Here is the letter I wrote this professor/instructor/lecturer/teacher:
Mr. Crisp,
Let me first make the claim that I am not a concealed handgun license (CHL) holder. However, I hope to be in the near future.
With that being said, I would like to calmly and rationally discuss your article published on March 3, 2011. I will go over these hopefully in order, point by point.
First of all, I must respond by saying that, according to the DPS website, the average age of CHL applicants are between 38-63 years old. This would mean that the main audience concealed carry is addressing is those who teach and administer the rules of the universities and colleges, such as (presumably) yourself, "non-traditional" students, and then, to a much lesser extent, upperclassmen, who generally do not live on campus.
Next, allow me to respond to your assertion that this is forcing colleges and universities to allow guns on campuses. This is expanding the scope of one of our most basic rights-the right to self-defense. The "force" which is being applied is that force which infringes on that most basic right.
Speculating on increased suicides is a real concern-if they played out. As it stands, on the campuses outside of Texas where concealed carry is legal, there have been no increase of impulsive suicides.
In addition,Texas has some of the most stringent CHL laws, and CHL students are taught those laws. They know that not concealing could bring stiff fines, and even jail time. Since (once again, according to the DPS website) CHL holders are FIFTEEN times LESS likely to commit a crime, and common sense is paramount in handling firearms, the scenario of showing off a Glock, Sig Sauer, Colt, Beretta, or any other make to one's friends may be done--once the CHL holder ejects the magazine, clears the chamber, and makes sure the breech is open-as to not have a negligent discharge. I do not say accidental because any discharge is due to negligence. Again, negligent discharges have not been a factor at any campuses where concealed carry is allowed.
And the horrific tragedy at Virgina Tech has been mentioned, only to be contrasted with the incident at the Appalachian School of Law, just as how the massacre at Columbine could be contrsted to the incident at Pearl High School.
As for your speculation of every CHL holder wanting to be a hero and the crowded classroom scenario, we don't have to look any further than the Arizona shooting of Rep. Giffords. A CHL holder responded to the gunshots by not pulling his gun and blasting away, but rather assessing the situation and deciding that his firearm was better left holstered. Decisions like these are critical for the license holder. Decisions like these are ones that are played though in their minds time after time--not as fantasy, but as a survival mechanism-to get home to their families.
I challenge you to call a professor who teaches in a classroom at one of the concealed carry colleges. Ask them how the "culture of the classroom" has changed. I would venture to say little if any at all.
And as to college being some of the safest places, ask Amanda Collins from Colorado State how safe is her college? Ask the two young men who were robbed recently at San Antonio College, how safe is their college? Ask anyone who has been assaulted, burglarized, or had a car broken into, how safe is their college? Ask the students at Virginia Tech, how safe was their college in 2007?
The legislature should not be creating a quasi-"police state" where the administration could adopt rules as to what behaviors these shooters you envision (which, by law, would have to be police officers) could correct. Texas is expecting a budget shortfall this year, and security at colleges will more than likely be one of the first things that go. The only logical course of action is to entrust rational, thinking adults with the basic right of self-protection, and the protection of those who are unable to at present by restraint of law.
Thank you,
Jasonw560
