I thought college campuses were safer without guns?!?!

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Sportcat

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This is at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC.

http://wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2850742&nav=0RaMVY0z

USC athlete robbed at gunpoint

(Columbia) Jan. 24, 2005 - A member of the USC swim team says he was walking on South Marion Street last Thursday night when he passed two men sitting on a ledge.

USC swimmer Dean Murray says he was going to a study hall when two men asked him for the time, "It just seemed like a simple question. Do you have the time? Quick answer and I hoped I'd be on my way, but apparently not."

Murray didn't make it to study hall, "I kept walking a little bit further and I heard a click behind me. And someone was coming after me with a gun. They pulled me off into the grass and told me to give them everything I had. I threw my wallet at them. They questioned me one more time, tried to kick me, and ran."

It wasn't the only recent USC robbery. Police reports show a female student was held up near the Blatt PE building in late December. According to Columbia Police, there have been 46 people robbed in the last three months in Columbia's south region. That includes the area around the University, Five Points and Shandon.

USC Police Officer Eric Grabski wants students informed, "We did get information out on our website. Also on a newschannel, our inter-campus cable network has."

Murray lost several things, "They got my phone and my wallet. I had a few things in my wallet, like $15 worth of cash, two credit cards and two forms of Id's, gift cards." The robbery itself has stayed with him, "It was just kind of a surprise when you turn around and someone's coming at you with the barrel of a gun in your face. It's pretty scary."

Murray says the two men who robbed him took off in a teal green van. Columbia Police will address the string of armed robberies around the city at a Tuesday news conference and they will announce details about three people now under arrest.
 
All it does is make campuses an attractive place for predators to seek out victims. I recall reading about an Applachian Law School student whose killing spree ended when confronted by another student who retrieved his weapon and held the shooter for police at gun point.


Students charge gunman, held him down for police

Chris Kahn
The Associated Press State & Local Wire

Tracy Bridges didn’t have much time to think when he saw suspected killer Peter Odighizuwa on the front lawn of the Appalachian School of Law.

Odighizuwa was holding a gun and so was Bridges, a student and sheriff’s deputy.

“I just reacted,†said Bridges, 25, who tackled Odighizuwa with classmates Todd Ross, 30, and Ted Besen, 37, moments after a shooting spree at the school Wednesday left three dead and three wounded.

The three men pinned Odighizuwa to the ground, and Bridges handcuffed the man’s arms behind his back.

Odighizuwa, 42, a former student who was dismissed on Tuesday for bad grades, is accused of shooting Dean L. Anthony Sutin and Professor Thomas Blackwell dead in their offices. Student Angela Dales later died of gunshot wounds.

As screaming students started climbing out of windows, Bridges and Besen said their police and military training took over.

“Hopefully if I’m ever on the other end of something like this, someone would try to help me,†Bridges said.

“I’m a former Marine, former police officer,†Besen said. “Who better to do that? I’m trained to do that. I’m not going to let him shoot anyone else if I could.â€

Ross downplayed the notion that they were heroes.

“I didn’t do anything until I knew I was safe,†he said.

Odighizuwa, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Nigeria, is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday morning in Grundy General District Court on capital murder charges.

Chris Clifton, the school’s financial officer, said he met with Odighizuwa on Tuesday afternoon with other school officials to notify him that he was being permanently dismissed for poor grades. Odighizuwa, who had flunked out and then was readmitted a year before, would have to pay back $9,250 in federal school loans.

Wednesday, Odighizuwa stopped in the office of professor Dale Rubin to talk about his grades and as he left reportedly asked Rubin to pray for him, police said. He then walked to Sutin’s and Blackwell’s offices and shot them with a .380-caliber pistol, State Police spokesman Mike Stater said. Blackwell had taught contract law to Odighizuwa.

“There were three quick shots, then we heard I think three more,†Bridges said.

Bridges and Besen, a former police officer from Wilmington, N.C., crept down a back stairwell to the parking lot, and Bridges got his gun out of the car.

Odighizuwa had walked outside and stood with a confused look on his face, Bridges said.

“I planned on blindsiding him from behind,†Besen said. “He sat the weapon down and raised his hands up in the air. I didn’t know if he was praying.â€

Besen said he ran toward Odighizuwa and told him to get on the ground.

“He kind of came at me. He swung and hit me in the jaw,†Besen said.

Once pnned down, he kept shouting, “I have nowhere to go. I have nowhere to go.â€â€™
 
Just because somebody got robbed on campus does not support nor refute college campuses being safer without guns. It is a single incident. Crime happens everywhere. Do you actually know if USC crime rate is up or down and how it compares between times when guns were allowed versus times when they were not?
 
doublenaught? Nationwide, crime is on a downward spiral that has been continuing for about 20 years. It began when fla passed "shall issue CCW", and has been dropping in correlation to other states passing ccw laws. I think at present we are at a 20 year low for violent crime.
 
I live and go to school in a state where we don't have any CCW period. The school I attend is also in a pretty rough part of the town. Campus security keeps it pretty locked down around campus, but if I thought I was going to have to be out late or walking around campus a lot, I would definetely want some sort personal protection. As it is I'm transferring back to my home town next semester anyways, but...

As far as campuses banning guns, I'm not sure that's a great idea, but I'm not sure guns on campus is always going to be a good idea anyways. I'm only 18 so I couldn't have a handgun anyways, but I wouldn't want to have one in these crowded dorms. I know the point of CCW is to have it all the time, but I wouldn't carry around the dorm and the piece would be in my room. I'm not sure I would tell my roomie and he tends to leave the door unlocked... I just don't think that guns in dorms especially are a good idea. And if they allowed guns on campus, I'm sure that's where most of them would end up.
 
I can't remember if guns were banned on campus or not, and no I'm not that old..only 25, college seems so long ago :p

Anyway, petty crime and vandalism was more problematic than any other crime (assaults, robbery..etc) on campus. I'm sure there were some folks who had guns in their dorms or on campus apts (I wasn't one of them, dad wouldn't let me take my rifles). We did have campus police, as well as 911 call boxes. But guns never really entered the equation as far as being a problem or being needed to solve a problem.

It seems to me that the school needs to pony up a good campus police department. Yes, it takes money, and believe me, after voting several times to pass initiatives to get stuff done at our school, I never wanted to vote on junk again. And yes, rising tuition bit it too, but it was necessary.
 
Must have been 16 years ago when a buddy of mine was going to USC in Columbia. He was walking toward the library when he saw a group of people (7 or 8) attacking a single person. My friend said that the trouble makers didn't appear to be students, and he couldn't see just standing by, so he jumped in to try to help the one person from getting beaten. After a brief struggle, the group left and it took a minute or two for my friend to realize he'd been stabbed twice. He was stabbed in the left shoulder and right buttock. I remember him being in the hospital for a week or so......Yeah, crime is everywhere, and USC is not a stranger to it.
 
Pics of the perps

They sure DON'T look like College students!

(Columbia) Jan. 25, 2005 - Columbia Police at a Tuesday morning news conference announced charges for five people in connection with 24 armed robberies in the downtown area since October.

Three of the suspects are in custody: Clifton Harrell, 18; Maurice Goodson, 19; and Shawn Halback, 19. They are being held on $1 million bond at Richland County's Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.

Investigators are also searching for Sean Mark Rodriguez, 20, and Amos Nagba, 17, in connection with the robberies in the Shandon, Devine Street and Five Points areas.

Authorities believe the five suspects worked together in various combinations on all the crimes. Columbia Police Chief H. Dean Crisp says the men used robbery to earn a living, "These individuals were quite frankly were in a group that, they just preyed upon people. They thought that that was appropriate, the only way that they had means of support. They were using it to buy drugs and buy other things with the money."

Among those crimes are the December 18 armed robbery of a Lexington man on Longleaf Road and the Dec. 8th robbery on 900 block of Maple Street.

In a robbery on December 3rd investigators say group of armed men forced their way into a house at 2408 Preston Street during a party, stole things and hit one person on the head with a gun.

The same night police believe the men robbed people as they got out of their car in the 200 block of Waccamaw near Five Points.

Investigators are also looking into whether the suspects were involved in other armed robberies in Columbia, including the robbery of two attorneys on Gregg Street in October, though officers say there isn't enough probable cause to charge them.

Columbia Police also arrested two juveniles on Saturday night. Investigators say they are connected with five unrelated armed robberies in the Midlands.
 
Campuses (Campii?) are safer without guns...

For the miscreants with criminal intent.
 
Quite sad guns are banned on campuses :( Having the gun-free zone in college campuses (people that age usually have lots of gadgets and carry more $$$) makes them a bloody crime-magnet.

I wrote a letter to my chancellor about a month ago and my state representative last week concerning the three gun-point robberies at NCSU in the last year. Actually got a decent response from the representative.
 
HELL, I WORK AT USC! You won't see me walking the campus after dark alone, and ask Sportcat, I'm a big guy. 6', 315lbs. And those photos of the perps, look a lot like the photos of the football players that just got arrested for stealing the laptops and projector and photos off the wall after Lou told them that they were not going to a bowl game. "USC owed us something" How about the 4 year degree you got, you thugs! Sure was not the $20K of equipment they walked out of the door with.
Since I've worked here for 12 years, I can recall 2 rapes, one murder of a federal prosecuter from the National Advocacy Center (which is on campus) and car breakins ALL the time. I myself witnessed a purse snatching from the window of the NAC, We even had a guy that was walking into our building and going thru offices and control rooms stealing what ever he could get his hands on. We've had at least 6 or more projectors and about a dozen DVD/VCRs stolen out of classrooms. Face it, we're in the middle of a down town area. Crime is not going to stay off campus. The USCPD has done a lot to help with their constant presence, and will provide you an escort if you call. We're starting to install a few web cams around campus, and I have a feeling that the PD is going to ask us to start installing for them too, but hidden. No, they cannot be there if they see you getting mugged or killed, but if they see thugs hanging around in an area, they can dispatch an officer to run them off.
I just wish they gave me back my right to defend myself while I'm at work. I LEGALLY cannot even keep a gun in my car, since I park in a private parking lot. Even though, I wouldn't do it, since I'm now driving a convertible, and you cannot keep thieves out of them.
 
Scott,

I was waiting for you to chime in on this.

Clemson may be a little safer, but we did have a drive-by on campus over these summer. Thankfully only a car got hit, but it goes to show, that just because guns are not allowed, that everyone will "follow the rules."
 
students.....

might have known, down in little swaziland, lie down w/dogs, get up w/fleas. don't know how or why the "educators" cannot "civilize" the animules. :barf: 'course, up here, we got th' whiggers, who don't even know how to work a HAT!!!! :cool:
 
Yeah, their hair is neat, they don't all have goatee's and I expect some of them have seen real life and are no longer supported by their parents.
Click to expand...

Yep... looks the public was supporting them when they stole, now the TAXPAYERS will be supporting them for the next 10-20 years. :barf:
 
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