Daily Skiff

Wyatt Tubb sums up the debate succinctly in the last paragraph.

"I have never thought about that" is at least an honest beginning.

Many well intentioned, decent people have never thought things through. All they have is strong emotion and a gut-level belief that killing is bad. Clearly thinking things through from a moral standpoint will show any decent person that there are times, thankfully rare, when *not* killing (or at least not threatening deadly force) is wrong.

To follow-up with TPaine, it's not even about the sheep mentality of "I don't know what I'd do". If someone doesn't want to own or carry a gun, we support them, but don't ruin it for the rest of us. We don't limit free speech just because someone COULD say "fire!" in a crowded room, right?

TPaine is right, though, that people don't think things through enough. Seriously, if students are already carrying in banks, supermarkets, movie theaters, malls, restaurants, etc. SAFELY why does everyone immediately think that once students (or faculty, staff, guests, family, visitors, etc.) cross the imaginary line onto campus the chances of them snapping skyrocket to almost an absolute certainty?

I am still amazed that some people are so naive as to think putting up a "No Guns" sign will actually prevent someone from having a gun. Only the law abiding (which by definition are not the problem) will obey such nonsense. A person willing to commit a felony is not concerned with the consequences of a "No Guns" zone. When the CCW law was being debated we heard the same hollow arguments that every auto accident was going to result in a shootout. It hasn't happened and it won't happen if CCW holders are allowed to carry on college campuses. Stop this nonsense and allow students that are licensed CCW holders to protect themselves and those around them.

While the academic debate drags on, re gun carry on campus, I recommend this. Do what I did when I had to live in affordable housing; (read here, a marginal / dangerous neighborhood). I said Screw campus regs. and carried a gun anyway.
A worst case scenario is being expelled in the unlikely chance you're caught carrying. A best case scenario is you save your life and possibly some of your classmates. In fact, being armed saved my life on 1 occasion.

Remember: In a Life or Death situation where SECONDS count, campus security or the police are only MINUTES away.

You rock; exactly what I did; and I carry my gun everywhere I can that doesn't have a metal detector -"no carry" sign be damned. No one, no government (look at 9/11 and the unarmed pilots!), no school, and no corporation has the right to take away my right to defense of family and self.

FYI, it's a third degree felony to carry a concealed handgun on the campus of a college or university in the state of Texas, so the worst case scenario is being expelled AND going to jail.

This is, in my opinion, a no-brainer. The right to self-protection is God-given, and it is acknowledged and recognized by the Second Amendment; the Constitution does give us that right.

Note that the Middle Eastern terrosits who blow themselves up in Israeli markets, buses, and the like, do not attck the school, as 40% of the staff, on average, are armed each day, thuis providing better deterance that "Gu-free Zone" signs.

Ed Sizemore, M.M. (1968)

Not meaning to nit-pick here, but for accuracy's sake: BYU is a private school and so they have the right to ban guns from their campuses (and I believe their Honor Code contains some language to the effect that students will not bring firearms on campus or keep them in student housing). The University of Utah, and other Utah PUBLIC institutions of higher education are prevented from banning licensed concealed-weapons from their campus (except during disciplinary hearings) by a state law (which was upheld by the Utah Supreme Court in a 2006 decision.