L.A. Columnist Has Nightmare:Guns on Campus from Kinder to College

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Winchester 73

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The nanny state is alive and thriving in SoCal if Mr. Martinez is any indication.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-martinez25feb25,1,2727307.column

Guns on campus -- a nightmare now, a real nightmare later
Twelve states are considering bills that would allow people with concealed-weapons permits to carry handguns on the campuses of public universities.
February 25, 2008

Al Martinez
I am having a recurring nightmare.

It takes place in a lecture hall at Anywhere State College during a tedious presentation on the history of video games. The only alert person in the class, a straight-A student majoring in Wi-Fi, suddenly notices an unfamiliar male entering the room.

He is wearing a hooded sweat shirt because it is cold outside and the wind is blowing, but it makes him look like a convenience store crook. He is also carrying a backpack and begins to reach into it.

I know, because I am an observer in the nightmare, that the stranger is only going for his NRA Play Station "Blood in Space" to occupy his mind during the lecture by a professor whose topic that day is "Pacman, the Godfather." The subject is, like, yesterday, and hardly anyone is listening or even paying attention to the presence in the doorway.

But the alert Wi-Fi major in the sixth row, whom everyone knows by the nickname "Guns," is sure that the doorway figure fits the profile of a campus killer and isn't about to sit there and be murdered without a fight. Guns instantly draws his legal 9-millimeter Beretta and begins blasting away.

The gunfire arouses the instincts of others in the class, and they, similarly, draw their permit-allowed weapons ranging from handguns to shoulder-mounted rocket launchers and join the fun. One student throws a flash/stun grenade.

There is chaos as the lecture hall turns into a battleground of crossfire, smoke and explosions, and when the battle stops, the only one standing is the lecturer, who is behind a bulletproof lectern. After a moment he continues his talk about the trail-blazing animated hungry ball that captured the attention of the world by eating electronic blips.

I fell into the nightmare after reading that 12 states are considering bills that would allow people with concealed-weapons permits to carry handguns on the campuses of public universities. The revelation came after the deadly shooting at Northern Illinois University. The prospect has stirred online support and is causing gun merchants to drool over the prospects of increased sales.

I was so terrified at the notion of giving guns to kids who can't figure out where their next class is that on a night when the rain was falling and the wind blowing, I had another nightmare.

This time I am taking my grandson to his kindergarten class at the behest of his mother, who has a doctor's appointment. As I am watching him run off happily into the play yard on School Street, I notice that another little boy has dropped his Roy Rogers lunch box.

It is red and yellow and has a picture of Rogers on the front mounted on Trigger, who is rearing. Rogers is waving his cowboy hat in the air the way he used to in all of those exciting 1950s westerns. I am intrigued by the lunch box because most kids today don't even know who Roy Rogers is, or was, much less Trigger, who is stuffed and mounted in a museum in Branson, Mo.

Then something equally significant catches my eye. In addition to the apple, carrot sticks and tofu sandwich that fall from the boy's lunch box, there is a snub-nosed .38-caliber revolver of the type I once carried as a backup weapon while a Marine fighting in the Korean War.

"What in God's name?" I shout, surprised that the snub-snouts, as we called them, are still around. I help the kid put it back in his lunch box, along with the apple and the other stuff, and ask where he'd gotten it. His grandfather, he says, who had also been in Korea. Then the boy's mommy comes by from parking her car and hustles him into the play yard, admonishing him for talking to a stranger -- bad boy.

The gun in the lunch box? That doesn't surprise me because it is within the guidelines of a new state law that mandates the right of students from grades K-12 to carry firearms to school to protect themselves against kids with guns. (This is a nightmare, after all.) It is basically the same right that had been granted earlier to college students.

Well, sure, even in the nightmare I am a little nervous that children would grow up knowing more about Smith & Wesson than Abraham Lincoln, but at least they get training in firearms safety and sharp-shooting, learning how to pick off the dangerous classmates without hurting others. I guess John Wilkes Booth had that kind of training too.

But then I begin worrying that the grandpa who furnished the snub-nose might come up with an antiquated .30-caliber air-cooled, belt-fed machine gun to mount in the kindergarten yard for all the kids to share. How could they possibly rely on the lethal efficiency of a weapon that was more than a half-century old?

I awoke from the nightmare both pondering the possibilities and writhing from the very notion of kids with guns. But then I finally calmed down, comforted by the fact that it was only a bad dream and not a reality.

At least not yet.

[email protected]
 
What a moron. I'm scared because at least half the people on the street think this tripe is actually a sensible argument against allowing CCW.
 
You have to wonder about people like the author. Because people have guns they suddenly become irresponsible criminals? Does the fact that he has a penis turn him into a rapist whenever he sees a female?


Len
 
I hope he as an awakening experience sometime soon so he'll start thinking with his head, instead of spouting idiot nonsense about adults turning their very expensive educations into live-fire laser-tag. It really makes my blood boil to read this kind of sillyness, this is the type of people who spend their whole lives smiling and laughing with their "friends", but would throw them to the wolves if they believed it would help their image in the slightest.
 
Does the fact that he has a penis turn him into a rapist whenever he sees a female?

What makes you think he is so equiped? He was obviousle born with out the capability of rational thought, I would expect he has other congenital defects as well. I would also suspect he dreamed the part about being a Marine.
 
This is the same "blood will flow in the streets" stuff that was used all the way back when Florida first started the Concealed Carry revolution and the of course it hasn't happened.

The sad thing is they keep reusing that same prediction even though time and time again it's proven to not even remotely resemble the truth.

But it sells papers and that my friends is the point of today's journalism; revenue.
 
I have never replied to an article before.
Maybe a pro-gun one once, or maybe an anti gun one that someone provided a pre-written response for...but I feel VERY compelled to reply to this one.
I want to resist just writing
"Dear Sir,
You are a moron."
Because I feel the need to educate this guy....but wow.
 
i'm going to respond. all i ever do is respond on this site, this is a great place, full of knowledge and inspiration to me, and i've finally been inspired to respond. what a jackass
 
When someone has to resort to exaggeration to advocate their opinion, you know their argument is weak... :rolleyes:

I recall the same argument in 2004 when the AWB was ending. They predicted the NRA would drive around major cities handing out AKs like candy canes and there would be a 300 percent increase in murder and shoot-outs. :eek: Each and every police station would surrounded by rifle wielding gun-nuts and they would be totally overwhelmed. Great logic...
 
He acts like college kids are idiots. I am sure a few are but so is he. If they are that messed up maybe they shouldn't be allowed to vote.:rolleyes:
 
What are the 12 states considering legislation to allow students to carry on campus? Would it just prohibit schools from expelling or prohibitng it? As I understand it, carrying on campus is not illegal in most places, but against school policy. And also a dumb question: but isn't prohibting guns on campus unconstitutional at the federal level as well as in many state constitutions? I find it ironic that many schools student right book list protecting constitutional rights as their top priority.
 
My response- sorry bout the length


Dear sir, I have just read your little opinion piece on allowing licensed concealed-carry on campuses. I am stunned by the way you feel about my generation, and indeed all generations of American Citizens, since college is not now nor has it ever been mandatory, nor do juveniles (only very rarely anyway) attend college. only adults are in colleges, and only adults may become licensed to carry concealed. the way you wrote about the issue makes me question whether or not you understand what it entails. the pro-CCW movement is about individual responsibility for our own safety, recognizing that all violent crime short of kidnapping is over long before Law Enforcement has a chance to respond, and usually well before LE is even aware of a crime. as the Supreme Court has said, the government owes no particular service or guarantee of safety to anybody, that is not what the police's primary mission is, and short of officers on every single street corner it never will be. they do what they can for the law-abiding citizens, but sadly, when it comes to our safety, we are all on our own.

I am very curious about why you believe that allowing individuals who have already undertaken the safety certification and extensive background checks neccessary to obtain a Concealed Carry permit would suddenly become bloodthirsty animals once they step foot on a school campus? maybe you just feel that 'college kids' can't be trusted, because 'everyone' knows that college students just get drunk and stupid until they graduate, at which time they evolve into 'responsible adults'. whatever. if an individual can't handle owning a firearm responsibly they can't handle operating a motor vehicle responsibly either, and i'll challenge you to refute that. it seems that every time a state prepares to move to a 'Shall Issue' method of Concealed Carry people who are against it will declare that blood will run in the streets. it has never worked out like that.

Please try to think very carefully and logically about what you've written, and what i've written, and think about it. please get back to me, I'm anxious to see what you think about it.
 
my response

In response to Guns on campus -- a nightmare now, a real nightmare later:

The very idea of putting such dangerous tools into the hands of young adults is truly frightening. How many of these young people as well as their friends or loved ones have to die every year before something is done. Some say that it's OK because they will need to get some training or take a safety course before getting their permit, but these are really just kids we're talking about. With all the hormones and other life changes, they can hardly be trusted with making life or death decisions if an incident were to occur. I can imagine all sorts of scenarios were innocent lives would be lost because some kid thinks it's all just like he sees in the movies or in video games. However, this is real life and involves real people and sometimes I really have to wonder, in light of all I have just said, why ..........................do we let young people drive cars?
 
too late. I'm at work so I was trying to get it out quick-like, hopefully the message doesn't get lost in the mechanics. Thanks though Taurus, I knew I should have followed my first inclination and waited till you guys could proof-read me. I'll post his response if he ever sends one.


harvster that's awesome
 
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I just had a recurring daydream. A young man on his toes just saved 10 students from an idiot that was going to kill them. ;)
 
The gun in the lunch box? That doesn't surprise me because it is within the guidelines of a new state law that mandates the right of students from grades K-12 to carry firearms to school to protect themselves against kids with guns. (This is a nightmare, after all.) It is basically the same right that had been granted earlier to college students.

Ummmm... yeah. Pretty sure this part is fabricated. No legislature would even consider allowing kindergarten students to carry firearms. What the bill probably said is that it would be legal for a LICENSEE (18-21 or above) to carry concealed in K-12 schools and colleges.

Why is it that every time we read an antigun piece there are always misleading statements, half truths, and out and out lies? Perhaps because if they actually resorted to logic and reason, their pro-liberty opponents would win the day.
 
My response

[email protected], [email protected]

It was an fun read, but your fears are unfounded. Nobody is seriously considering sending kids to school with guns. The idea is to allow adult students and faculty to carry guns at school just as they can almost everywhere else, where they don't murder others for looking suspicious. Actually, there was a time when kids brought guns to school for marksmanship, show-and-tell, or hunting afterward, and mass-shootings were unheard of at the time. Sleep well.
 
The nanny state is alive and thriving in SoCal if Mr. Martinez is any indication.
Um, yeah, well, YES, and that's not really a recent development. Let's not forget how well the state, the county, the city, LAPD and LASO protected the citizenry and the business owners during the LA riots ... Oh, wait ... never mind.

Anyway, I'm surprised anyone still reads the LA Times (or just about any newspaper named "Times," "Tribune," "Post," "Herald," "Globe," fort that matter...). Its content, particularly its editorials and slanted reported, just serves to raise the blood pressure considerably.
 
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