CPRC in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “Allow permit holders to carry guns on college campuses”

Jan 6, 2016 | Featured

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John Lott’s op-ed with Michael Gordinier, who teaches at Washington University in St. Louis, was published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (January 06, 2016):

Would posting a “gun-free zone” sign in front of your home make you feel safer? Probably not. Criminals don’t obey these signs. In fact, to criminals, gun-free zones look like easy targets.

So why do we put up these signs in other places? Bills being considered by Missouri state Sens. Brian Munzlinger, R-Williamstown, and Bob Dixon, R-Springfield, would lift the current ban on concealed carrying at higher education institutions. Gun control advocates can’t point to any problems with permit holders carrying gun in those places, but it hasn’t stopped them from opposing the proposed law.

Since at least 1950, all but two public mass shootings in America have taken place where general citizens are banned from carrying guns. In Europe, there have been no exceptions. Every mass public shooting has occurred in a gun-free zone. And Europe is no stranger to mass shootings. It has been host to three of the six worst K-12 school shootings and by far the worst mass public shooting perpetrated by a single individual.

With dozens of cases where permit holders have clearly stopped what would have been mass public shootings, it is understandable where killers avoid places where they can’t kill a large number of people.

What might be surprising is how killers often openly talk about their desire to attack where guns are banned. The Charleston killer’s first choice was to target the College of Charleston, but he chose the church instead because there were armed guards at the college. . . .

johnrlott

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