Sense alone stops no attack
Policies against self-defense guns can’t alter the grim facts
Common sense is a good thing[bold emphasis mine throughout], for the most part, but it is useless when it comes to defending against mass murderers who are bent on destroying others and themselves in a blaze of violence and death.
In a story about the push by some college students nationwide to be allowed to carry firearms on campus, the Associated Press quoted W. Gerald Massengill, chairman of a panel that investigated the mass shooting at Virginia Tech: “I’m a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. But our society has changed, and there are some environments where common sense tells us that it’s just not a good idea to have guns available.”
What he said sounds reasonable, except for one thing. As one shooting after another on campuses and in other public places has proved, such attacks cannot be prevented by no-gun policies or laws. The Virginia Tech ban on weapons on campus did nothing to prevent the massacre there. So talking about what common sense says about no-gun rules is kind of beside the point.
The same issue has come up in Oregon in connection with public schools. A Medford teacher challenged her school district’s policy that barred her from being armed on school grounds. She went to court and lost, but she’s appealing. Now the school district plans to ask the Oregon Legislature to amend the law in order to give school districts explicit authority to enforce such policies. The question would be how. Metal detectors? Regular pat-downs?
But all the policy writing and law making can’t alter the hard facts of life in the 21st century. These include that people bent on violence and self-destruction cannot be stopped by written restrictions. Another is that people who have met the requirements for a permit to carry a concealed weapon are, as a general rule, more law-abiding and responsible than your average individual in the population at large — and certainly more so than the criminal who just ignores the law.
So the next time we stroll about any school or college campus teeming with hundreds or thousands of students, the ones we have the least reason to be nervous about are the ones who have a permit to carry a firearm under their coat. (hh)
