UT Speech In Favor Of Concealed Handguns Will Go On Tonight

• I'm sorry, what fine college or university do you attend where there are high school thugs sitting in the back of the class, Anonymous? It doesn't make sense that a thug who likely joined a gang out since they had very few positive, legal economic perspectives in their community, would even bother to attend a thousands of dollar a year institution. And to all of those who point out the fact that concealed carry laws haven't killed anyone outside of college campuses, just think about the relatively low numbers of gun deaths on gun-free campuses here. Except for the few who have gone crazy, there aren't armed thugs roaming around the library- what the fuck would they be there for? The average college student probably has like five bucks in his pocket, or an iphone, or a laptop. There have been thefts off-campus where I go to school, Texas A&M, where an ipod or an iphone was taken. No guns, just threats, no one was hurt. However, when you have a gun already out in front of you, do you really want to whip yours out, and probably be shot in the process? Is an ipod or making sure you're "protected" in the minute sliver of a chance there is another gunman on campus really worth your life? Also, pro-guns on campus kids fail to point out most of the gun deaths from "crazed thugs" happen not because someone was unarmed, but because someone with a legal gun failed to properly keep it locked up. Guns are more valuable on the street than some ipod or a laptop. Logically speaking, its a smarter move to jack up a gun owner caught off guard and disarm him. Plus, what college kid can afford a gun anyways? My dad sold his for beer money when he was in school. Should any concealed carry on campus laws change, I doubt that college kids would bother to be trained properly before purchasing a weapon. And those gun nuts who are are usually the ones you gotta look out for in the first place.

• Those of you who carry probably experience this; carrying has made me exponentially more efficient at simply avoiding confrontations or conflict at all costs. Furthermore, it's really comforting to know that I can defend my wife and child from a maniac, except of course when I seek higher education at a gun free crime zone. I don't enjoy sitting in class trying to pay attention to lectures while the felons in the back of class are throwing gang signs and discussing drive bys, all the while knowing that no rule or law will stop them from bringing a weapon to school, but because I abide by laws, I'm completely defenseless. I'm just glad the police are only minutes away.

• "My worries, about students carrying guns, isn't situations like this, it is the other 99.99999999999999999999999% of days when there is no need to have a gun. How many of those days end up in a death or injury due to students carrying weapons to class." The simple answer to that is, none. Millions of people carry guns for self defense every day in this country: to banks, grocery stores, movie theaters, restaurants, malls, etc., and the number of times that they've misused these guns is so small that even when the Brady Campaign tried to make up a list of incidents to show how bad it was over the last several years, they couldn't even come up with more than you can count on your fingers (and that includes at least 3 incidents they wrongly included that had nothing to do with legally carried guns). This is all "Oh, well, it MUST be this way" BS that flies in the face of every bit of actual empirical evidence on the subject. None of these millions of people have started a Wild West gun fight, none of them have shot each other in confusion, etc., etc., etc. In short, not one of the pansy "dire consequences" that always get thrown out there by those completely ignorant about the nature of guns and self-defense have ever occurred after a positive change in gun rights laws. After the ban is struck down in DC in 2008 - DC has, in 2009, the lowest murder rate since 1962. After virtually every state in the country started allowing people to carry concealed weapons in public - all forms of violent crime, including gun crime, dropped consistently year after year. No blood in the streets, no shootouts. In fact, last year the FBI reported several instances where armed citizens saved the lives of police officers who were under attack. And for those whose only response is name-calling, grow up and educate yourselves. If you can't argue facts, shut up and let the grown-ups talk.

• This incident is a perfect example of why students and faculty who are licensed should be allowed to carry their weapons. UT has added all the "protective" measures that schools have adopted since the VTech shootings, including the system for texting warnings that we heard so much about, lockdowns, etc. And yet, had this person wanted to kill others, he would have had just as much success as the others who have committed these horrible crimes. Even with all the measures taken since VTech, he still managed to run around shooting for 30 minutes before he killed himself. And the police never caught up with him. Despite the warning systems and the lockdown procedures, he was still encountering innocent potential targets right up to the moment he shot himself, showing that none of those things worked to protect anyone. In fact, it took 15 minutes from the time the first calls came in to police before the first warnings were issued. The simple fact of the matter is that no system can react quickly enough to protect the people most likely to be victims in one of these situations. The time in which such a reaction must occur is a matter of seconds, and the police simply cannot respond quickly enough to make any difference. The only people who can react quickly enough are the people who are right there when it starts. We've seen this again and again. Virtually none of these incidents have ever been ended by the police. Either the attacker kills himself or students and faculty manage to subdue him. The one exception is the earlier UT shooting by Charles Whitman, who was killed by a shotgun blast from a police officer. But even in that incident, the police gave most of the credit to the armed students and faculty members who kept him pinned down with their return gun fire until the police could respond, one of whom was also a member of the 4-man team that climbed the clock tower and killed Whitman. In short, gun free zones are really just unarmed victim killing zones. They are places where we take weapons away from the only people capable of making any difference or saving any lives, and continue to rely on systems we know can't do any good whatsoever to make us feel as if we're safe. Are there risks inherent in allowing licensed people to carry weapons on campus? Of course there are. But where did people ever get the stupid idea that life was supposed to be risk-free? These same people carry guns for self-defense in virtually every other public place, and none of the hand-wringing, pants-wetting predictions of dire consequences have come to pass in any of those. Even the silly worry over confusing the police (who don't even manage to get there until it's all over even when it lasts 30 minutes) has never occurred, despite daily uses of legally concealed handguns in the interruption of crimes across the country. It's time we stopped wetting ourselves over imaginary dangers that we have no reason to believe in, and accept our real and obvious responsibility to protect ourselves, and let our fellow citizens do the same.

• Pussies carry guns. Sack up, guys.

• You know, speeches like that and comments like this make me question the "free speech" portion of the 1st Amendment....

• Lotta Heinlein fans here.

• I seem to recall the antis saying the same nonsense right before the concealed carry law was passed. Something about it's going to be like the Wild West and everybody was going to be shooting each other because everybody had guns. Never happened, did it?

• Early, that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Tell me how it works out when a dumbass kid with a permit shoots someone over an argument or accidentally on the 99.999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of the days when there isn't a "maniac" running around. If you want to play with guns, join the army or become a police officer. If you are too big a pussy to go to school, then get home schooled. You can play with your gun all day long there.

• GOPLUVSGUNS, Anonymous, Common Sense- Hey, just take a page from your boy Obama and his approach to terrorists. If you ever encounter a maniac with a gun, try and promote dialogue with him and get back with me and let me know how it worked out.

• White people get scared easily. After Columbine, everyone should be afraid of white guys shooting up schools.

• Would having some students, that were trained and licensed to carry a firearm have helped yesterday or at Virginia Tech, quite possibly. My worries, about students carrying guns, isn't situations like this, it is the other 99.99999999999999999999999% of days when there is no need to have a gun. How many of those days end up in a death or injury due to students carrying weapons to class. We are at 12% unemployment, if you folks are too scared to go to school without your pistol, lets hire some new cops or military folks to roam the campus and man every classroom.

• More guns on campus - the worst idea ever. Can you imagine a bunch of drunk fraternity brothers sitting around drinking even more and each of them is armed? Guaranteed shooting.

• LibSuck - It's a crime to shoot an AK-47 at a university - so how could putting more "bans" on guns prevent what happened at UT?

• Not surprised

• If every man woman and child had a gun this wouldn't have happened. The more guns the better, we can never have enough guns.

• Yeah, the ban on weapons on campus worked real good for this guy. We need more bans on guns on campus, not less!! If we put stronger bans on guns on campus, the criminals will think twice (or more times) about breaking the law!!!

• Uhhh, no, he did not conceal his gun.

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