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My LTE to the Collegiate Times

vt357

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http://www.collegiatetimes.com/news/2/ARTICLE/9141/2007-06-27.html

Any time a proposal to allow citizens to carry concealed handguns is introduced, the same old tired arguments are pulled out of the box. Two are that "blood will run in the streets" and "it will be like the Wild West." Or as some put it, “any confrontation has the potential to turn into a fatal shooting.”

With a Virginia concealed handgun permit, a student can carry almost anywhere in the state including the town of Blacksburg. We don’t have a problem with people fighting and shooting each other in the streets.

I routinely went about my business in Blacksburg with a Sig Sauer pistol holstered on my belt. However, I always left my gun in my apartment when I went to class. Why should I be considered a safe and law abiding citizen while walking down Main Street, but then become a loose cannon waiting to shoot someone by stepping foot on campus?

In fact permit holders are generally some of the most law-abiding citizens in the country. Tales of blood running in the streets and petty disagreements resulting in shootouts with permit holders are a myth. Stories of citizens using guns to stop violence in schools are not hypothetical, they are actual events.

There should not be an invisible and farcical “no guns allowed” line drawn around Tech’s campus. The only people who obey that rule are law-abiding citizens, not criminals intent on harm. Students should be allowed to defend themselves on campus using more than a cell phone. With that, they can only call the good guys with guns (the police) and wait to be rescued.

To quote Thomas Jefferson who was reading from Beccaria, "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms … disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes … Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."

Chris Soldan
Biological Systems Engineering
Class of 2006 Alumnus


Although I have had my letters published before, I can't believe they actually published this one. Since they only publish once a week during the summer, I guess I will have to wait until next Thursday until someone tears into my "so called logic."
 

OC-Glock19

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Good letter, Chris. Straight to the point and with great logic. I'm sure that you're right and that the antis will be incensed by what you wrote, but there may be a few fence-sitters who can follow the logic and will come down on the side of gunowners. Good job on getting it published!
 

Tomahawk

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Great letter. Only problem is you quoted the patron saint of UVA... may lose a few in the slobbering audience. ;)

One thing I like about being involved with the pro-RKBA crowd is their adherence to logic (on this issue, at least).
 
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