Ohio Rifleman
Member
Hello all. As you might know, I've been working on a letter to the editor of my university's newspaper regarding their idiotic weapons policy. Well, I picked up a copy today at school, and lo and behold, I found it in the OpEd page of the paper.
The exact letter, as it appeared in the paper is:
The exact letter, as it appeared in the paper is:
The weapons policy at Wright State University is irrational, foolhardy and dangerous. This is the policy that I took from the Student Handbook, word for word:
The weapons policy at Virginia Tech is much the same. They both forbid students from having any kind of self-defense tool, even if one has a concealed carry permit, which allows the holder to carry many other places. This policy does not work, as we saw with the tragedy at Virginia Tech in April. All this policy does is make sure that law-abiding students are defenseless before a murderous lunatic.
Why do they insist on making the students and faculty at our university sitting ducks before a killer? Why must we give up one of our most sacred rights, that of self-defense, in order to get an education?
Holders of concealed carry permits in Ohio must be at least 21 years of age, have a clean criminal record, and must pass a firearms course. What possible harm could come from allowing these people to carry on campus?
Before the law allowing concealed carrying of handguns went into effect, many people thought this would lead to shootouts over parking spaces and the like. This has been proven utterly false. The law has been in effect for over a year, and nothing of the sort has happened.
Some may call me paranoid for wanting students to be allowed to have these tools on campus. I believe it is no more paranoid than wearing a seatbelt when you get into your car. Or, perhaps, keeping smoke alarms or fire extinguishers on hand. They are simply precautions taken if something bad happens, which likely will not. It is the same with carrying a self-defense tool such as a handgun.
Others might say that the police will protect you should something happen. The police could not save the 32 people murdered at Virginia Tech, nor the many others who were wounded by the attacker. Every time you hear of someone being attacked or murdered on the news, that is another instance in which the police could not save someone. The police perform a valuable service at Wright State, but they are not supermen. There is no guarantee that they will be there to save you.
I would rather depend on myself for my own safety, rather than a uniformed stranger.
In conclusion, Wright State’s draconian weapons policy should be changed immediately, allowing students to carry concealed weapons on campus.