Comments on: Why I support concealed carry (on campus and otherwise)

By: Kevin C

Kevin C — Mon, 11 May 2009 02:08:55 +0000

Excellent article. The people with a license to carry have been given at least 8 hours of classroom instruction, fingerprinted, and undergone a background check. They are not a threat to anyone except those who commit crimes.

Criminals have and do carry whenever and wherever they please. If you think nobody is carrying a gun on Missouri’s college campuses, you are deluded. The drug culture on those campuses attracts dealers, and dealers carry guns.

By: Chris Meissen

Chris Meissen — Wed, 06 May 2009 14:03:11 +0000

May 4, 2009 headline in Atlanta, GA.: “College Student Shoots, Kills Home Invader” as reported on http://www.wsbtv.com/news/19365762/detail.html. Two armed criminals invaded a birthday party, separated the men from the women, robbed the men and began to rape the women. A student who (horrors!) had a gun in his backpack ended the robbery and rape attempts, killing one of the intruders in the process. If this had been MSU, they’d have all been regrettable unarmed victims.

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 06 May 2009 03:55:00 +0000

@T T, why do you think mass murder shootings only happen in "gun free zones"? if they guns don't deter them, why wouldn't they choose, oh i don't know a firing range, or a police station? because as someone pointed out law enforcement has never EVER neutralized the threat. When faced with armed opposition(be it police) the threat turns their gun on themselves. and even IF what you say is true, it doesn't deter them at all. Why make it easier for them? the point is that stripping people the individual right of self-preservation, just because they walk over an imaginary line, on the campus, they all the sudden are void of that right is nonsense. Especially when these shootings almost ALWAYS happen within these imaginary boundaries.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 06 May 2009 00:37:21 +0000

T, name one time when a shooter involved in a campus attack has been stopped by law enforcement. It hasn’t happened. The cops have never arrived and taken action in time to stop a campus shooting. We should not be deprived of our right to self-defense regardless of where we are or what type of criminal is committing the attack.

Society is safer when the criminals don’t know who’s armed. The legal, trained citizens with permits to carry concealed weapons are not the people you need to worry about, tt’s the criminals who disregard the law and carry anyway.

By: Zach

Zach — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:40:35 +0000

Actually, I agree with you on that point. Deranged individuals don’t think logically. That’s why I don’t think allowing legally concealed weapons will deter psychopaths intent on dying in the act of killing others.

However, if some law-abiding citizens are carrying concealed weapons on campus, it may be possible to cut short one of those murderous, suicidal rampages. It certainly couldn’t hurt anything.

But I think concealed carry would be very effective in deterring much more common campus crimes – committed by (misguided and morally corrupt) sane individuals- such as burglary, assault and rape.

By: T

Tue, 05 May 2009 19:25:00 +0000

There is one flaw in your thinking. A person holding up a convenience store expects to get away with their life. A psychopath intent on killing a classroom full of people and his or herself has decided that they too will die that day. How many campus shooters have survived? They have either been killed by police or committed suicide. They had no intention of living to see another day. That is why more guns on campus will not deter a psychopath. They don’t think like you and I. They are not going to suddently have a normal thought and change their mind because someone nearby might have a gun.

By: Justin Von Vugt

Justin Von Vugt — Tue, 05 May 2009 18:08:03 +0000

Well written article Zach. The AP should pick this up and spin it out to every major publication in the country. I could not have said it better myself, and believe me I’ve tried.

By: Stu Strickler

Stu Strickler — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:37:55 +0000

Jane, very well said! CCW holders are a threat to no one, except criminals.

By: Jane

Jane — Tue, 05 May 2009 16:02:34 +0000

The author failed to point out that individuals with Missouri CCW licenses also undergo background checks conducted through the Missouri highway patrol. How many students, faculty members, or university/college employees in Missouri have undergone the same scrutiny?

CCW holders have no illusions of vigilante justice. Instead, they have made a well thought out decision and chosen to take individual responsibility for their personal safety understanding fully that law enforcement has no such obligation to protect them on campus or elsewhere.

CCW holders do not interfer with decision of those people who choose to be willing vitims by forcing them to become responsible citizens. Instead, CCW holders wish to protect their own lives and the lives of their loved ones when confronted/attacked by an individual or individuals with the opportunity, means, and expressed intent of using lethal force in an illegal manner against them.

Why then, is CCW such a threatening subject to those who oppose it. Certainly many of the ideas and behaviors endorsed upon college campuses have been proven greater threats to society than that tool for personal protection carried concealed by responsible, law abiding citizens.

By: Stu Strickler

Stu Strickler — Tue, 05 May 2009 15:11:31 +0000

There are already weapons on campus. They are carried by criminals that have no thought of obeying the law. Licensed, trained citizens carrying a firearm on campus are no different than the thousands of law abiding citizens that carry on the street every day for personal protection.

There are over 60,000 law abiding citizens in Missouri licensed to carry a firearm for personal protection. You didn’t know that? You are around them in banks, shopping malls and grocery stores every day. They are just ordinary people, soccer moms, factory workers, bankers, doctors and ministers.

You don’t notice these people because the firearm is concealed and they don’t make the nightly news by breaking the law.