20 May, 2008

Some people just don't get it!

I would have thought students are just more intelligent but it seems that's not compelling reasoning. Have you heard of the SCCC, the Students for Concealed Carry on Campus? This organization is not affiliated with the NRA, but has the same ridiculous mindset: Guns for everyone will make this world a safer place. Actually I wrong them because they don't want guns for everyone but only
those individuals--age twenty-one and above, in most states--who possess valid concealed handgun licenses/concealed carry weapons permits to be afforded the same right to carry on college campuses that they are currently afforded virtually everywhere else.

But that's not the point. The question is how more guns should make this happen. I mean how do they think this is going to work out? The person running amok is presenting himself and everybody got a free shot? I would rather fear that in such a situation full of panic self-proclaimed wannabe heroes just shoot wildly around and cause even more casualties. Ever heard of friendly fire? More than one fifth of the deaths in the Operation Desert Storm has been killed by friendly fire - and we are talking about professional soldiers here, in a "controlled" operation (as far as it is possible). Not hobby shooters with people running around panicking.

Also what do you think is going to happen when everybody is allowed to carry a weapon? Isn't it likely that the potential gunman will just take more powerful weapons, e.g. full-automatic ones or grenades? Just think about it, we are talking about people that want to cause as much damage and casualties as possible. There own life usually doesn't matter to them anymore. Another example, what happens in case of somebody taking hostages? Do you want to have uncontrollable people around trying to free the hostages and endangering their lifes?

The believe in weapons is naive to say it mildly. It's just hard to scare somebody who wants to sacrifice his life. That's why George W. Bush's War on Terror had to fail and that's why the idea of the SCCC or the NRA can't work - neither on campuses nor on the streets. Maybe it's just a problem of too many guns on the streets. Maybe somebody should just start thinking about the actual problems in the (American) society. But that would require intelligent people which I would have hoped you can find easily on universities.