Saturday, February 17, 2007

What To Do When A Gunman Comes On Campus

I understand that it's not politically possible to tell students to fight back. Someone's going to get hurt, and then there's beaucoup dinero in a lawsuit from the School Insurance Authority.

However, it's also pretty clear that playing docile isn't going to work, either. If a gunman comes on campus, everyone is left hoping that he goes and kills someone else in another room, and we'll deal with survivor's guilt later on--when at least we're alive to have such guilt.

If no one on campus is armed except the bad guy, the number of good choices to make drops to zero in a heartbeat. What should we do? Hold hands and sing Kumbayyah while some nut gets his jollies blowing people away? No.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I say, let all the students bring guns to school!

Unknown said...

We did. It was not uncommon for us to take rifles and shotguns to school, and put them in the locker. After school, we went shooting. Of course, we also had rifle teams (not the phony cheerleader rifle teams).

What's really amazing is that there was not one school shooting or shooting accident. Not one. We were raised in homes full of guns and taught all about them when we were very young. Nobody played with guns because we knew what they could do.

Ellen K said...

I wonder where the concealed handgun opponents are on this issue. I am also curious if you can carry a handgun with such a license on campus. I don't have such a license, but my husband it thinking about getting one since he travels quite a bit and frankly cities like Houston and San Antonio are pretty scary places at times.

Anonymous said...

Ellen K.: "I am also curious if you can carry a handgun with such a license on campus. I don't have such a license, but my husband it thinking about getting one since he travels quite a bit and frankly cities like Houston and San Antonio are pretty scary places at times."

Ellen,

Most states that have passed concealed carry laws have had to concede schools as so-called "gun free zones", thereby ensuring fresh, unarmed targets for predators.

While I don't care too much for Houston, San Antonio is a nice town; it's very historic with much to see and do. If you're ever there, be sure to have dinner in the Tower of the Americas revolving restaurant where you can get a great view of the city during a typical Texas sunset.