Dr. John Lott’s newest piece at Fox News on the new Texas law going into effect on Monday starts this way:
Monday marks the 50th anniversary of the 1966 sniper shooting that left 14 dead at the University of Texas at Austin. The killer, a former marine, murdered his wife and mother before going to the UT campus and shootings his victims from the clock tower. On Monday, the school will unveil a new memorial to those who were killed. Also on Monday, Texas becomes the eleventh state to mandate that permitted concealed handguns be allowed on public university campuses (21 other states leave that decision up to the individual schools).
The coincidence of the dates was accidental, but many are outraged by what they consider the callousness of legislators marking this anniversary by allowing more guns on college campuses. Others, such as University of Texas at Austin President Greg Fenves, say that the two events “are separate issues. We are not connecting them in any way.”
But if America has learned anything from past mass public shootings, it is that August 1 is precisely the day to implement the new law. The only thing that is really outrageous is that it took 50 years to pass it.
Gun control advocates think that gun bans will make people safer. But banning guns only ensures that law-abiding good citizens are disarmed, not the killers. Instead of bans improving safety, these bans attract killers and make it easier for them to commit crimes. My new book, “The War on Guns,” shows that all mass public shootings in Europe have occurred in places where law-abiding citizens were prohibited from carrying guns. The same is true for over 98 percent of the attacks in the U.S. . . .
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