Does Utah lead the nation in common sense?

Question

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070427/ap_on_re_us/campus_guns

If Virginia had had this law, there's a very good chance the death toll last week would have been considerably lower.

Vegaswoman: I think you're missing the point, my friend. Perhaps one student would be insane. The other 2 or 3 kids in that classroom who were carrying would make short work of him.

brothershamus: That might well be the most nonsensical answer I've seen yet. Illegal drugs have no licit use. Guns can be and are used for protection.

Lltrix: So you're a professor, huh? Now I understand why you have never been right about anything ever.

Answer 1

"In 1997, Mississippi teenager Luke Woodham killed his mother and then drove to Pearl High School where he killed two students and wounded seven more. Assistant Principal Joel Myrick ran a quarter of a mile to his vehicle and returned with his .45 pistol. Myrick confronted the teenaged killer and detained him while waiting for police to arrive. Woodham was attempting to leave the high school and planned to drive to the local middle school and continue his killing. Myrick's actions saved the lives of many children that day.

In 2002, a Nigerian student named Peter Odighizuwa shot and killed three people at the Appalachian School of Law in rural Virginia. His shooting spree was ended when fellow students Todd Ross and Ted Bessen went to their cars and retrieved their own guns. The pair returned and ordered Odighizuwa to drop his weapon and held him until police arrived.

This past February at a Salt Lake City mall, an armed off-duty police officer shot and killed a young Muslim terrorist named Sulejman Talovic. The officer (Ken Hammond), prevented a massacre as Talovic was found with a backpack full of ammunition, a shotgun, and a pistol. Before Officer Hammond ended the shooting spree, Talovic murdered five people."
- 'The Va Tech Shooting Should Serve As A Nationwide Call To Arms', By Dave Gibson (04/22/07)

The fact is a "Gun Free Zone" is a killing zone for anyone willing to murder because that person is willing to break laws to obtain an illegal weapon, carry it illegally concealed into the "Gun Free Zone" and kill innocents.

While I am very glad Utah has the laws allowing concealed weapons on campus by those with permits, they are not the only state. Oregon has a similar law. Unfortunately, they are the only ones.

Liberals forget, most crimes committed with guns are ILLEGAL guns, which means more gun laws are not going to stop the crimes! Most states that enacted concealed weapons permits saw significant drops in personal violent crimes.

"In Florida, which first introduced "shall-issue" concealed carry laws, crimes committed against residents dropped markedly upon the general issuance of concealed-carry licenses... " - http://www.nraila.org/statelawpdfs/VTSL.pdf

While those states/areas that outlawed personal guns, saw significant increases in personal violent crimes (Washington D.C., Britian, Australia, etc).

The fact is, only the law abiders are going to follow the gun laws anyways. So by taking the guns away from law abiders, you are making them easy targets for criminals and lunatics out to kill someone.

"Unfortunately, an almost perfect inverse correlation exists between those who are affected by gun laws, particularly bans, and those whom enforcement should affect. Those easiest to disarm are the responsible and law abiding citizens whose guns represent no meaningful social problem. Irresponsible and criminal owners, whose gun possession creates or exacerbates so many social ills, are the ones most difficult to disarm." - Don Kates

Answer 2

Theres some good things in Utah, conceal carry enabling laws, a new tuition voucher program.

Then again there is nuts like a local politician who says illegal immigration is satans plan to take down the nation.

I dont know that if students were allowed to carry guns they could have stopped Cho or not. But I guess some chance is better than none.


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No, what if this pistol packing student is also mentally ill and/or a substance abuser? ""

Unlike Virginia, Utahs gun laws require a check for medical instability before being able to buy a gun.

Answer 3

Sounds good on paper, but if something really happened most likely the other student with the gun would just get himself killed, and or kill other innocent bystanders. It is hard enough for trained people like the police to handle such a situation, but then again maybe knowing they other students have guns might keep him from trying it, but I doubt.

What people seem to forget is that if someone really wants to kill other people there are many ways to do it. What good would the other student's gun do if he had brought a bomb instead? What if he just got into his car in a place with lots of pedestrians and started ruining them over? Not to mention a gas tank would make a good bomb, how about the common natural gas tank for your barbecue?

It is extremely sad, but it is a fact of life.

Answer 4

No, Utah leads the nation in idiocy. That was the proof. I'm a prof and I find the idea of my students having concealed weapons in my classroom absolutely frightening. A bunch of drunk frat boys with glocks doesn't sound like a safe campus to me. This country is becoming absolutely insane. Mutual Assured Destruction is not a good foreign policy nor is it a good policy when it comes to personal weapons build up. It's downright stupid and reactionary.

Answer 5

if mr libresque (sp) a true hero, would have been able to pack it would have been solved very easily. also the teacher that came down stairs to see what was the problem; dont remember the name but I think he was a foreign language teacher.

Answer 6

I was briefly considering that to be true but then I actually read the article and found that no, it leads the nation in idiocy instead. And polygamy. Can't forget about that.

*EDIT*

Rick N why don't you go around criticizing professors when you get your own Ph D? As a general rule, you don't insult people smarter than you =/

Answer 7

They make very good sense. You are absolutely right!

Answer 8

I'm proud to live in Utah.

Answer 9

No, what if this pistol packing student is also mentally ill and/or a substance abuser?

edit- I think you would see more murders on campus.

Answer 10

If illegal drugs were more available in this country maybe we could keep people from getting high.