Stop stereotyping college students!

[myrockfight]

Wes

Wes,

What about non-lethal protection? Our campus prohibits stun guns for sure. However, I am not sure about pepper spray. Either way, I carry it. I also carry pepper spray when I am carrying.

I can almost guarantee that you are more likely to get into a situation where you would actually use pepper spray vs. your carry gun. I know I have been in more than a few situations that warranted non-lethal force.

Even if you are breaking the rules by having pepper spray, it is much more easily defended. You have a gun...forget it. You are going to be expelled and probably prosecuted. Especially, in light of the VT shootings.

Any thoughts on that?

 

[obxned]

When I went to college, there were many guns in the dorms. Never was a problem, ever!

 

[darkknight]

Depending on were I work I am licesensed by the state of my residence to open carry. I am only 20 years old and the state believes me to be responsible enough to carry. I come from a very liberal state and they still grant me this right, I cant even buy a pistol but I can carry one (doesn't make sense to me, but my opinion doesn't really matter on this issue). So college students can be responsible enough to carry it just depends on the individual and that is a personal choice each person must make. As I have grown older I have come to realize, A, life is to short to try and whoop anybody who challenges you, B, you never know who that guy is and what he knows. and C, their is nothing to gain by trying to be a tough guy it doesn't impress anyone either. I play college sports and really just want to have the easiest least painful lifestyle that I can live. I also practice more than most people when Im home and working. I go shooting once or twice a week over the summer and really practice my trade. I'm sure their are some expert college age marksmen and if I trusted the individual I would have no qualms with them carrying a weapon. So please give the college kids some respect most of us are mature enough to make the right decisions just let us do what we have to.

 

[Titan6]

I went to college on the GI Bill when I was 27. My campus refused to allow students to store firearms in the dorm rooms. I lived off campus next door instead. There was no prohibition against carry either open or concealed at the time. the campus had a decent outdoor shooting range that the state and local police used to practice and qualify on. I almost never carried on campus anyway because the threat level I considered to be so low as to not be worth the effort of having it dig in my hip or back every day in class. I guess I was right as we did not have a single murder in four years and never once was I in a situation on campus that would have called for a firearm.

Keep in mind colleges are normally very safe places. There are normally fewer than 30 shooting murders nationwide every year. Nearly all rapes and assaults (of which there are a lot depending on the campus) take place after dark. If you only walk around on campus during the day the odds of you being shot dead are tiny, although it happens. I guess after this week, were I a student again I would likely carry.

Of the people I knew of that had guns; there was a drug dealer (who was also a student) that lived down the street from me who got popped by the DEA. They discovered 22 firearms in his house including 3 AKs. At the time AKs were even more evil than they are today. As far as they could tell the guns had never been used in a crime but dealer in poss got him sent to the big house for a very, very long time. There were three other guys that I hung out with regularly who were all also there on the GI Bill. One was a former Marine and he had some of the nicest toys I had ever seen. One was in the National Guard and a lic FFL dealer who kept me in guns, ammo and parts at cheap prices. I helped out another guy by storing his stuff at my place (he lived on campus). The National Guard guy always carried, but he also tended to carry large sums of cash on his person and more than one person knew that.

About 20% of the students I came across I would not have trusted behind the wheel of a moving vehicle much less behind a gun. Many of them who were away from home for the first time made a lot of bad choices with drugs, alcohol, sex and/or taking any responsibilites for their lives. Certainly they had the right, but I would have been more concerned seeing them armed and irresponsible than unarmed.

 

[Avenger29]

I can almost guarantee that you are more likely to get into a situation where you would actually use pepper spray vs. your carry gun. I know I have been in more than a few situations that warranted non-lethal force

Sounds like the anti-gun arguments. I would carry both. Pepperspray for non-lethal, gun for lethal threats. Its called picking the right tool. Just cause you have the gun does not mean it is used for everything.

I am getting sick and tired of this discrimination. That is exactly what it is. This isn't like Al Sharpton screaming the race card about Don Imus, it is a very real situation. There are those on this board who are willing to throw me under the bus because I am under 21 and therefore should not have the ability to get a CCW

I am tired of having people say that because I am a college student, I am a drunkard and dumber than a monkey. I work hard in school, I don't party, and I participate in shooting and other activities that show I have a high level of responsibility.

How is it that I can buy a long gun (and I am pretty proficient with those) but people think I can't operate a handgun effectively? Or that I can't be trusted to carry one?

You do realize that by the time you get to college that most of the riff-raff from public school is gone? And that there is CCW at Utah universities and nothing has happened up there?

 

[JerryM]

When I went to college, I kept a shotgun under my bed in a GI footlocker, which I locked. I was not aware of any rule covering it.
BUT, we had a different mindset then, and never considered killing classmates or teachers over anything except outright self defense, and there was never a need for that.

How people's thinking has changed. It is a Me, My, self love society that has fed on violence in song, movies, TV, video games, and other selfish folks. It is a society with liberty without responsibility. That does not work over the long run, and we see the deterioration of liberty as one result.

 

[Wes Janson]

What about non-lethal protection? Our campus prohibits stun guns for sure. However, I am not sure about pepper spray. Either way, I carry it. I also carry pepper spray when I am carrying.

From my reading of state law, and interpretations of such, I'm fairly sure that possession (open or concealed) of stun guns/pepper sprays on campus is a crime in the state of Florida.

I am getting sick and tired of this discrimination. That is exactly what it is. This isn't like Al Sharpton screaming the race card about Don Imus, it is a very real situation. There are those on this board who are willing to throw me under the bus because I am under 21 and therefore should not have the ability to get a CCW

I am tired of having people say that because I am a college student, I am a drunkard and dumber than a monkey. I work hard in school, I don't party, and I participate in shooting and other activities that show I have a high level of responsibility.

How is it that I can buy a long gun (and I am pretty proficient with those) but people think I can't operate a handgun effectively? Or that I can't be trusted to carry one?

Well put indeed. The laws are seriously screwed up-I may legally purchase a handgun from a private individual, who only has my word to go on that I'm not a felon. But I can't go into a store and buy a pistol, where they would actually conduct a background check and call it in with the FDLE. I can legally purchase a belt-fed .50 BMG semi-automatic rifle, but I can't buy a Ruger Mk.III .22LR pistol. I've heard stories about people hired by agencies who can't buy ammunition to train with because they're not 21 yet.

There are many completely irresponsible 22 year olds (and for that matter, 44 year olds). But there are also many highly responsible 18 year olds. The arbitrary deprivation of the right to self-defence based upon age is an abhorrant policy that deserves no less outrage than any other act of gun control.