Campus Carry article on InsideVandy

[Guest sog]

JONES: Please, no guns on campus | InsideVandy

Anyone wanna chime in?

[1gewehr]

The writer obviously did NOT go to hear John Lott. For those who are not familiar with the name, John Lott wrote the book, 'More Guns, Less Crime' based on actual statistics of citizen firearm use to prevent crime. The first edition came out in 1998, and Mr. Lott has been defending his results ever since. The third edition has recently been released and has a lot more evidence based on the huge amount of data that states have compiled in the ten years since the second edition.

Amazon.com: More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws, Third Edition (Studies in Law and Economics) (9780226493664): John R. Lott Jr.: Books

The first problem with the writer's argument is that there is a lot of evidence that citizen firearms carry prevents violent crime in general. Additionally, it prevents the highly-publicized public multiple victim shootings at a much higher rate than general violent crime. As for the writer's fears about accidents or suicides, there is a lot of data showing that those fears are unfounded.

Rather than opposing campus carry based on a lot of hypothetical feelings and lack of data, the writer should have done his homework. The facts are pretty amazing. College campuses with prohibited carry have higher crime rates than those that allow citizen carry. And there is a lot of data to prove it. To anyone with half a brain, it's pretty simple; criminals will prey on those that can't hurt the criminal.

The old question is just as valid now as it ever was. How is a woman lying raped and dead in a gutter morally superior to a woman explaining to the police what happened with her pistol in her hand and a dead rapist in the gutter?

[Worriedman]

The old question is just as valid now as it ever was. How is a woman lying raped and dead in a gutter morally superior to a woman explaining to the police what happened with her pistol in her hand and a dead rapist in the gutter?

That is exactly how I ended my comment to his article, but I suspect it will not pass liberal muster and will never make it to the comment section..

[Mike.357]

Lets hope the author actually learns something in his remaining time in school. He has obviously failed at that to date.

[MikePapa1]

JONES: Please, no guns on campus | InsideVandy

Anyone wanna chime in?

I did. It's not been posted yet, but I responded.

[LagerHead]

I did. It's not been posted yet, but I responded.

Wish I read this before I posted. I may have double posted. Feaux pas!

[daddyo]

Poor kid has already been indoctrinated. I hope he's smart enough to see the truth one day before it's too late.

[raydog1]

That is exactly how I ended my comment to his article, but I suspect it will not pass liberal muster and will never make it to the comment section..

This scenario doesn't exist in the author's mind because, as he put it: "You would need an army of gangsters, or the Secret Service, on your side. In other words, you would need the government (or a similar organization) to step in and protect you."

He freely ignores the multitude of cases where victims successfully defended themselves against an armed assailant, but instead focuses on an emotional story about his suicidal friend.

There is no reasoning with people like this.

Wish I had known about Lott's visit. I was free Mon. night and would've gone. No video of this on their site yet: www.yalvandy.com

[Worriedman]

Mr. Lott showed up at the TFA Meeting last night. We had Adam Dread scheduled, Mr. Dread did not tarry long, nor would he speak while there was video equipment running...

[daddyo]

Mr. Lott showed up at the TFA Meeting last night. We had Adam Dread scheduled, Mr. Dread did not tarry long, nor would he speak while there was video equipment running...

Guess that's because Dread came to the meeting "unarmed", so to speak?

[MikePapa1]

Adam Dread is a politician, plain and simple. It would not surprise me in the least that he would have left the TFA and gone directly to an anti-gun group and made diametrically opposed statements. I have some acquaintance with him both personally and professionally and would advise counting ones fingers after shaking his hand to make sure all of your fingers are retained.

Just a personal opinion.

[Guest nicemac]

He freely ignores the multitude of cases where victims successfully defended themselves against an armed assailant, but instead focuses on an emotional story about his suicidal friend.

There is no reasoning with people like this.

THIS.

I had a dialog with a liberal (the blogger at commongunsense.com) a few weeks ago. When I pointed out the flaws in her position–that guns cause homicide and the US leads the world in gun deaths, so obviously getting rid of guns would make the US a safer place–she promptly started calling what I stated as nonsense and then shut down comments on her blog post. There, settled that.

Re-state: There is no reasoning with people like this.

[R_Bert]

Edit - deleted previous speculation on appearance of artical comments.

Off topic question - How do you do a "strikethrough" on this board ? All I see is bold, italic, and underline.

Edited September 21, 2011 by R_Bert

[Worriedman]

Adam Dread is a politician, plain and simple. It would not surprise me in the least that he would have left the TFA and gone directly to an anti-gun group and made diametrically opposed statements. I have some acquaintance with him both personally and professionally and would advise counting ones fingers after shaking his hand to make sure all of your fingers are retained.

Just a personal opinion.

After meeting him and Paul Helmke and wearing them out with questions at a debate at UT Martin a couple of years ago, I think your personification of the said Mr. Dread is spot on!

[Worriedman]

The comments are up on the original post now.

[raydog1]

The comments are up on the original post now.

And they are excellent!

[R_Bert]

The comments are indeed good.

Thought - Perhaps a few TGOers in the Nashville area can reach out to Mr. Jones and offer a meal and a visit to a range ?

[LagerHead]

The comments are indeed good.

Thought - Perhaps a few TGOers in the Nashville area can reach out to Mr. Jones and offer a meal and a visit to a range ?

Fabulous idea.

[Oh Shoot]

....

Off topic question - How do you do a "strikethrough" on this board ? All I see is bold, italic, and underline.

They won't show when I type them in here correctly, but use s and /s in brackets and you get this.

- OS

Edited September 22, 2011 by OhShoot

[Guest lostpass]

It's a student newspaper. Young people have crazy ideas, usually liberal, that change over time. No big deal. HE thinks what he says in the paper is important, you think what he says in the paper is important, everyone who actually reads the paper thinks the ad offering cheap beer is important.

[Guest sog]

The comments are indeed good.

Thought - Perhaps a few TGOers in the Nashville area can reach out to Mr. Jones and offer a meal and a visit to a range ?

I sent an invite. Who knows if he'll take me up on it, but I figure it's worth a shot -

----

Jesse,

I read your article on "guns on campus" recently on InsideVandy. I always try to reach out to people with differing viewpoints in a way that can be constructive. It occurs to me, from reading your article, that you may not have had much exposure to handguns or self defense, and that maybe you'd like to sit down and talk about these things sometimes from someone on the other side of the fence, so to speak.

I graduated from Vanderbilt in XXXX, and am back on campus on a part-time basis. After very my good friend and fellow vanderbilt alum XXXXX XXXXXXX was murdered in XXXXXX, I took a number of classes on handgun safety, firearms self defense, and concealed carry. Over the next several months, I got my concealed carry permit, and a few handguns, and I now carry regularly (whenever the law permits), and also shoot competitively in some defensive shooting competitions. I think that, in the right hands, a concealed weapon can be a great asset to personal security and to public safety - and the statistics agree with me here. In my opinion, a lot of the gun laws on the books don't achieve much except to disarm lawful citizens such as myself. More generally, shooting is a heck of a lot of fun, and a great way to meet interesting people and develop some skills that you might not otherwise have the chance to do so.

I go to the range once every week or two, and can bring along a weapon, ammunition, and all the other equipment necessary if you'd like to try your hand at shooting a few different guns. Maybe we could sit down afterwards and chat about the experience, and the factors that have shaped our very different viewpoints. I like to think that a little familiarization with guns goes a long way towards showing people that they're just inanimate objects, and perhaps useful tools, and not inherently evil or dangerous.

(This article comes to mind: Passing D.C.'s Rules to Get a Gun Was Hard, but the Weapon Posed Its Own Test)

If you're already quite familiar with guns or just don't have any interest in going to the shooting range with a "gun nut," then that's fine too, and no hard feelings.

Let me know,

-me

[ls3_kid]

After I read his excuse that the Second Amendment was changed in 1789 and America was a very different place blah blah blah. I closed the window.

[Guest WyattEarp]

just because they have intellect and brains and go to Vanderbilt, doesn't mean they have any common sense. Most college kids I know are pretty smart, but nearly all of them fail to exercise common sense.

[daddyo]

just because they have intellect and brains and go to Vanderbilt, doesn't mean they have any common sense. Most college kids I know are pretty smart, but nearly all of them fail to exercise common sense.

Unfortunately, most colleges nowadays manage to educate the smarts right out of 'em.

[Guest nicemac]

Edited version:

"Unfortunately, most colleges nowadays manage to indoctrinate the smarts right out of 'em."