Finally, Someone is Catching On

Great reporting tactic from MSNBC News:

"When shots echoed across Georgia's Albany State University last month, students started running and police cars rushed onto the campus with sirens wailing. Several students lay wounded on the ground, and a gunman was using a hostage for cover.

"Still under fire, campus police rescued wounded fellow officers as Albany and county police moved in to help. The gunman tried to escape and, after several minutes of chaos, members of the Albany police SWAT team found him dead and pulled the wounded students to safety.

"Authorities said every law enforcement and emergency organization in Dougherty County responded, along with two hospitals and the county health department."

I'm sitting here thinking, "How the HELL did I not hear about this?! What am I, living under a rock? I live mere hours from Albany. What the fuck?!"

And, of course, the next line in the article is "It was all a test."

Well, color me red. I was had!

Apparently, the school did a mock event to see if they were prepared. Roberson Brown Jr., chief of the university police, gave them a "C". Not so good for those students. And, they are taking matters into their own hands.

Student-led campaigns for the right for students to carry concealed weapons on campus are popping up all over the place.

"'We’re basically saying that we want the right of all people that are over the age of 21 that already have a concealed handgun license to be allowed to carry in class so that tragedies like Virginia Tech might be averted in the future,' said Cody Smiley, a student who helped organize the action."

But, those opposed to the notion say the fears are unwarranted.

"Federal crime statistics offer little justification for that fear. Violent crime, in fact, remains so low on college campuses that they are among the safest places in the nation.

"A Justice Department study found 62 violent crimes per 100,000 college students in 2004, compared with 462 per 100,000 Americans overall. That was the last year of a decade-long survey of campus crime by the Justice Department, but data reported under the federal Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990, also known as the Jeanne Clery Act, indicate that violent crime on campuses has not increased appreciably since then."

But, that isn't stopping those who feel that they are "sitting ducks" from pushing for their right to bear arms.

"Paul Chandler, an associate professor of natural resources who is advising the Ball State chapter, said armed students could end a critical situation long before police could arrive at the scene.

"'Whenever a university or school advertises itself as a gun-free zone, they’re basically saying, "Spree killers welcome," because they know everybody’s unarmed,' Chandler said. 'Some people say, "Wouldn’t there be a shootout in the classroom?" Well, a shootout in the classroom would probably be better than a massacre in the classroom.'"

Finally, someone who gets it.

Another someone who gets it:

"'Firearms, put in the right hands, can be used for the good of society,' said Blake Graham, a junior criminal justice major at Ball State University. He and other students on the campus in Muncie, Ind., formed a chapter of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, a national organization that lobbies state legislatures to allow students with legal permits to carry concealed weapons onto campus."

Of course you have your idiots who think guns are evil:

"Arthur Romano, a nonviolence educator who founded the international organization Youth for Peace, said the focus should be on preventing violence because guns aren’t a deterrent."

Um, wrong again, you tree-hugging, hippie, jackass. I live in Kennesaw, GA. In Kennesaw, GA, there is actually a law that requires all heads-of-household to own a firearm. Go check our crime statistics. We are in metro-Atlanta, here, people. METRO-FREAKIN'-ATLANTA. And, we have VERY low crime rates.

People are just So. Fucking. Stupid.