Moral Dilemma HB 354

Hey Y’all, over the past few weeks I have been reading many articles concerning House Bill 354.

This proposed bill would allow students, faculty and staff to carry concealed handguns on college campuses. Like any political debate you must have two opposing sides to the argument, and as with all debates both sides have taken the argument to the very extreme. Those for the bill want to paint a picture of the Lone Ranger saving the day when a crazed student snaps and starts killing everyone in sight. Those against the bill want you to believe that allowing the bill to pass will be a powder keg waiting to blow. That every F, failed romance or drunken frat party argument will end in a wild wild west shoot out. Well now both sides present a humorous argument, so let’s take a look at it without all the drama. Lets first look at the amount of violence that the media forces upon us daily. Movies, videogames, and mainstream television are becoming more and more violent. The nightly news is filled with reports of violent acts of murder, rape, and assaults on water fowl. Society in general has become more hostile, just take a look around the next time you are stuck in traffic and see all the people losing their temper. Over the past decade and a half, school shootings have now happened in Jonesboro, Arkansas; Pearl, Mississippi; Paduch, Kentucky; Springfield, Oregon; Littleton, Colorado; Virginia Tech; Northern Illinois; Appalachia school of law; and University of Texas. Mass shootings have occurred in Killeen, (Luby’s) TX; Fort Hood; and New Life Church in Colorado Springs, CO.  With these incidents in mind it would be safe to say that the current honor system of not carrying a gun on campus or otherwise where not allowed by law is ineffective, at best. Now with these terrible incidents in mind, we need to look at the reality of concealed carry.  There are 38 public universities with over 500,000 students in this state. The average age range is 18 to 22 years of age.  The fact that you must be 21 years or older to apply for the concealed carry license drops the number of eligible college students considerably, this leaves non- traditional students to be the majority of eligible candidates. Now you must consider that a vast majority of these non-traditional students are prior military and combat veterans, such as myself. A great deal of these students I have personally trained in my ten plus years as a military weapons instructor. I feel confident that a reasonably stable licensed individual poses no threat carrying a concealed weapon on campus. The fact is, most fire fights (shootouts) last between 10 to 20 seconds. The average response time for a SWAT team is 20 minutes. The Virginia Tech shooting lasted roughly ten minutes. Would it not be a more reasonable decision to allow those with the knowledge, ability, and experience to carry and potentially deter a horrible situation? Not allowing the legal carry of weapons will not solve anything, the emotionally and mentally distressed individual will, and has used a weapon regardless of the law. The challenge is on all of us to do what is morally right to protect ourselves and one another, despite social disapproval and ridicule. To gain more insight on the use of weapons and the psychological aspect of killing I invite you to read some of LT.Col Dave Grossman’s work at www.killology.com . The essay “On sheep, wolves, and sheep dogs” really sums up today’s society and the need for a concealed carry law; this can be found at http://www.killology.com/sheep_dog.htm