Ohioan
Member
I was inspired by several threads on this board and the events of monday to write two articles. The first and longest is about "gun free zones" and their stupidity. The second is on VT's idiotic policies.
I am a strong supporter of the 2nd Amendment and concealed carry laws. I have become severely agitated with lawmakers in our country on such issues. Concealed carry laws neither raise nor lower the amount of deaths caused by guns. Instead they allow individuals the right to protect themselves and not become victims. Virginia, Texas, Ohio and several other states that issue Concealed Carry Licenses have set up areas where licensees are not allowed to carry their weapons. In Ohio, the law states that any business wishing to not let CCL holders carry on their premises just needs to post a sign on their door; CCL holders are not allowed to carry weapons in churches, government buildings, restaurants that serve alcohol, universities and any public school.
In one of the two Ohio cases of armed robbery in a church one elderly man was injured. In that incident, two armed individuals robbed an entire congregation during its service. In 1991 Texan George Hennard drove his truck into a cafeteria in Killeen Texas. He proceeded to murder twenty-three people and wounded twenty before he killed himself. In 1997, Luke Woodham slit his mother’s throat, and then proceeded to shoot and kill two female students and wounded seven others. In 2002, Peter Odighizuwa killed three people and wounded three at Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, VA before he was stopped by two students. On Monday, April 16 2007, a student at Virginia Tech murdered thirty-two defenseless students and faculty before he killed himself. Thirty of them died while police were on the campus.
All of these cases have something in common. They happened in places that citizens were not allowed to carry weapons. In Virginia 1% of the population has a license to carry concealed weapons. Therefore, if Cho Seung-Hui had encountered one thousand people, ten of those potential victims had the chance of defending themselves. What if one of those students in the dorm he first entered would have had a gun? How many lives would have been saved? We’ll never know. In the Texas killings, Hennard could’ve been stopped by several patrons of the cafeteria who had firearms in their cars but due to law at that time were not allowed to have them on their person. Suzanna Hupp was one of those patrons. Both of her parents were murdered by Hennard. Hupp led and won a crusade to pass concealed carry laws in the state of Texas. Woodham shot students until he heard sirens. Then he ran to his car where he planned to drive down the street to the junior high building and continue his shooting. Luckily, he was intercepted by a brave administrator. Upon hearing gunfire, Vice Principal Joel Myrick went to his car, retrieved a firearm. He saw Woodham heading towards his car. Myrick then confronted Woodham. Myrick was later quoted as saying “Here was this monster killing kids in my school, and the minute I put a gun to his head he was a kid again.” Odighizuwa was stopped when the two students went to their cars, retrieved handguns and confronted him.
In two cases where by law, no one was able to defend themselves 75 people were killed or wounded. In the two cases where there were armed individuals to stop the murdering, 10 people were killed or wounded. When confronted by someone ready to defend themselves, the murderers gave up. They were then prosecuted and we were able to find out why they did what they did.
How many lawmakers would be willing to walk down High Street just off the OSU campus at 9:30 in the evening during spring? How many thousands of people do that every day? Is there always a police officer or campus security within sight?
If a person is not allowed to carry in a certain area, then the government should provide proper security at those places. Private businesses should be allowed to choose their own policy. I do not have to patronize that store if they do not provide proper security. Texas law states that any restaurant that derives more than 51% of its business from alcohol sales is off limits to CCL holders. They must display a 51% sign on their door. I believe this is a better law than Ohio’s.
To those people who believe that all guns should be banned I saw this: Even if you were able to get every last gun from every last criminal, mass murder is still possible. In Africa, one of the favorite tools of militia and religious zealots is the machete. Millions of people have been killed by machete in recent years.
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