From The Post in Athens, Ohio, this letter to the editor:
Your Turn: Students challenge gun law by sporting empty holsters
Published: Monday, April 14, 2008
Last Modified: Sunday, April 13, 2008, 10:04:17pm
Letter to the Editor
During the week of April 21-25, thousands of college students throughout the United States, organized under the banner of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus (SCCC), will attend classes wearing empty holsters in protest of state laws and school policies that stack the odds in favor of dangerous criminals and armed killers by disarming law-abiding citizens licensed to carry concealed handguns virtually everywhere else.
SCCC hosted its first national collegiate Empty Holster Protest during the week of Oct. 22-26, 2007, on the campuses of approximately 125 U.S. colleges and universities. This second Empty Holster Protest will expand upon the concept of the first protest by placing greater emphasis on educating the uninformed. Protesters will focus on sharing the facts of “concealed carry” with students and faculty who may not be aware that concealed carry laws exist or that those laws differ on college campuses from most other locations.
In 39 U.S. states, thousands of college students and faculty “age 21 and above” are licensed to carry concealed handguns throughout their day-to-day lives. And they do so without incident. Numerous studies* by independent researchers and state agencies show that concealed handgun license holders are five times less likely than non-license holders to be arrested for violent crimes. However, despite the absence of any compelling evidence that these licensed individuals would pose any more threat to college campuses than they currently do to office buildings, movie theaters, shopping malls, grocery stores, restaurants, churches, banks, etc., they are prohibited, either by state law or school policy, from carrying their firearms onto most college campuses.
Colorado State University, Blue Ridge Community College (Weyers Cave, Va.) and all nine public colleges in the state of Utah currently allow concealed carry on campus. After a combined total of more than 60 semesters of allowing concealed carry on campus, none of these schools have seen any resulting incidents of gun violence, gun accidents or gun theft.
From assault to rape to mass shootings, college campuses are touched by every type of violent crime imaginable. Labeling an area “gun free” may make some people feel safer, but as the shootings at Virginia Tech and NIU taught us, feeling safe is not the same as being safe. There is a wide discrepancy between the intent of campus gun bans and the actual consequences of such bans. It is this discrepancy to which the student members of SCCC hope their Empty Holster Protest will draw attention. While opponents may argue that guns have no place in institutions of higher learning, SCCC contends that it is the rapes, the assaults and the uncontested, execution-style massacres that have no place in America’s colleges. The students of the Empty Holster Protest respectfully ask that steps be taken to take the advantage away from those who seek to harm the innocent.
For more information, contact Alex Herbert or visit www.ConcealedCampus.com.
*“Crime, Deterrence, and Right-to-Carry Concealed Handguns,” John Lott and David Mustard, Journal of Legal Studies (v.26, no.1, pages 1-68, January 1997); “An Analysis of The Arrest Rate Of Texas Concealed Handgun License Holders as Compared to the Arrest Rate of the Entire Texas Population,” William E. Sturdevant, Sept. 1, 2000; Florida Department of Justice statistics, 1998; Florida Department of State, “Concealed Weapons/Firearms License Statistical Report,” 1998; Texas Department of Public Safety and the U.S. Census Bureau, reported in San Antonio Express-News, September, 2000; Texas Department of Corrections data, 1996-2000, compiled by the Texas State Rifle Association.
Alexander Herbert is a senior forensic chemistry major
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