On April 7, 2012, A gunman at Oikos University told the students to line up against the wall and exclaimed, "I'm going to kill you all!" before shooting 7 students to death and wounded 3 others. Oikos University shooting is one of many shootings which occurred at an university. Northern Illinois University shooting, Virginia Tech massacre, the list goes on. Solutions to preventing future reoccurrences are constantly being debated. I believe most of these debates lack rationality.
I find it important is completely break down the situations to the core elements. What are the fundamental conditions which must exist for these undesired outcome to proceed. Here is what I’ve come up with.
1. A person who wishes to cause harm to another person(s)
2. The use of a weapon/tool, i.e. firearms, for the individual to carry out these wishes most effectively
3. Victims unable to defend themselves from the individual who wishes to cause them harm
All three of these factors must be present in order for the events to occur. By removing one, we can prevent the event altogether.
Number one is unpreventable. Number two and three is where it gets interesting. Number three is directly correlated to number two, as in number three can only exist when number two is true. In America, and in Texas, guns are present and available. Guns are widely produced and distributed. As much as we try to regulate them, there are still countless possibilities for anyone to obtain one whether it’s purchased legally or stolen. Because of this, the only way to prevent number two is to remove all guns everywhere. Not only stop all future productions but also confiscate and destroy all current firearms. If you have any knowledge of history and don’t live in an utopian fantasy, you would know how unrealistic this hypothetical proposition is. This makes number two unpreventable as well. So our last hope lies within number three. If there is always a possibility of someone threatening my life with a firearm, I must always be able to defend myself with a firearm. In theory, if everyone has a firearm, it removes the threat by spreading out the power.
Laws are a system of rules that a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members and may enforce by the imposition of penalties. Laws are meant to protect our general safety. Punishments are in place for those who break the law. But what happens when the laws become counter productive? What if the law is helping the criminal and harming the law-abiding citizen? It must be recognized and changed.
The Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 is irrational and has taken way to long to be realized. The current Texas legislation has passed a new bill which allows students with concealed weapons permits to bring their guns on campus as long as the guns remain in cars at all times. It’s good to know that if there is a gunman in my classroom shooting students, I can run to my car (hopefully unnoticed by the gunman), grab my firearm from the trunk while the gunman continues to do as he pleases, run back with my firearm, and hopefully stop him before anyone else gets hurt. Obviously there is a lot of room for improvement but at least some people are beginning to realize how to think logically.
“We’re not talking about classrooms full of angry gun-toting kids upset about their grades. We are talking about a fundamental, God-given natural right, that should not be abridged based upon some silly belief that rights are somehow contingent upon the location where you choose to exercise them. Signs and policies that mandate so called gun free zones ostensibly for the sake of safety instead create target-rich environments for the twisted criminal mind. The time to pass Campus Carry is now. I respectfully request you place it on the call.” (Jerry Patterson)
Additional Readings
TXEXplainer: Campus-Carry Legislation
Guns on Campus: Overview
Students for Concealed Carry
The Shootist
This analysis is in response to a colleague's blog about the legislation for carrying firearms on school campuses in Texas. Mr. Chao, the author of the blog, did a great job of outlining the issue of concern. The issue being that there have been numerous shootings at school campuses across the United States, and not many effective countermeasure have been produced to restrict them. Mr. Chao uses his own point of view to interpret the factors that cause such tragedies, and forms a solution strategy to limit them. I really appreciated the way he took a general problem, isolated a specific issue, and strategized a solution that he truly believes would have a positive impact. He stated that the main concern which must be addressed is that the legislation currently restricts students from being able to defend themselves during an attempted school shooting. Mr. Chao made it clear that he would support any legislation that would allow for students to carry firearms for their own protection, therefore providing a progressive countermeasure to these school shootings.
ReplyDeleteI thought Mr. Chao's analysis and proposed solution are definitely warranted. Obviously these growing trends of school shootings need to be limited by some form of effective change. Mr. Chao did note that Texas has adopted a bill allowing students with concealed carry permits to bring their firearm on campus as long as it always remains in their parked vehicle. I do agree with him though, that further steps must be taken as the current bill still has some notable flaws. I believe allowing students, with the proper permits, to carry firearms on their body during school could definitely reduce the number of school shootings. I definitely support Mr. Chao's analysis and proposed solution, however, I do wish he would of provided some statistics to emphasize the need for new legislation. I think some data that correlates different States' "campus carry laws" and "frequency of school shootings" could be beneficial in emphasizing the need for a change in the current legislation. Overall, it was an interesting read and an issue that has direct relevance for our class.