Faith, but no facts
In response to Mr. Burnett's Campus Forum letter ("Don't take the law into your own hands," April 4) -- I feel sorry that an ever-growing number of people are unable or unwilling to accept responsibility for their own defense.
I find it disturbing that you imply that Mr. Sirakos and others like him are cowards. Is it cowardly to want to keep our streets safe, not only for ourselves but also for others? Rest assured Mr. Burnett, that since you are so willing to place your lives in the hands of others, that there are those of us out there who will bear arms in your defense. I may not know you, but I -- a fellow student you "feel sorry for" -- am willing to take a bullet for you. As to the editorial staff of the Technician, you have once again thrown out the same tired arguments that CCW opponents have used since the 1980s. It's rather humorous to live in a society where religious faith is no longer in vogue, yet people are willing to believe such gun control myths on faith alone. I say "faith" because there is no fact. All the data and statistics, both from government sources and independent studies, overwhelmingly show that CCW works. Florida is not a "Wild West shootout." Our streets are not overrun with the blood of CCW license holders killing innocents in fits of rage. As a parting shot (no pun intended) -- you say that your fellow college students aren't competent enough to handle firearms: Is this a belief drawn from your own inexperience and incompetence, or are you placing yourself on a higher plane of intellect than your fellow students? Either way, I think it's funny how the government trusted me with a security clearance and millions of dollars of equipment to save people's lives, yet here on campus I apparently can't be trusted to handle my own defense.
Craig Hymel junior, electrical engineering
Concealed weapons not scary
A few days back I read for the first time the idea of concealed weapons on campus. Almost immediately my opinions washed back and forth. At first I was skeptical about the idea. Who wants dozens of people walking around campus with firearms? But the more I've read about the pros, the more I believe they outweigh the cons. As has been stated previously, there is nothing that will stop some hell-bent murderer from doing his deed. Having a no-firearms-on-campus campus doesn't matter to someone who is deranged enough to even think about pulling off school shootings. So honestly, what will change by having concealed weapons on campus?
People who are actually mentally stable will not only have a way of protecting themselves, but also will be the "first responders" in the growing fad of mass murders on college campuses. I read where one student said it would be "frightening" to know that people were walking around with concealed firearms. My first thought upon reading that was that the scariest horror movies are ones where the victims have no way of defending themselves.
The Technician's editorial staff, in all of their wealth of knowledge, assume that the people applying for these permits would be "amateur gun users." I would imagine that the only people who would even want to bear the responsibility of carrying around something capable of taking life with the millimeter pull of a trigger would be people who have grown up around them all their lives and understand the consequences of the pull of that trigger.
William Bruns junior, civil engineering
'In You Words' showed inexcusable bias
I was pleasantly surprised by the coverage of the issue of concealed carry on campus. I found both the article written by Saja Hindi on April 4 ("Organization advocates for concealed carry on campus") and the corresponding editorial very informative. While the arguments presented are subtle and nuanced, both authors did good job of surveying the wide range of opinion.
I was disappointed, however, when reading Michelle Chandler's "In Your Words" segment. I find it surprising that Ms. Chandler did not interview a single person that said concealed carry was a good idea, unless she only interviewed the three individuals featured. To avoid any accusation of bias, Ms. Chandler may wish to include more diverse opinion in her next piece. In the interest of diverse opinion, you can chalk me up as one who supports the idea of concealed carry on campus.
Jeffrey Horn senior, economics
Trust in the facts
As is typical of most such articles, your April 4 editorial "Concealed weapons would add increased safety risk" is devoid of logic and statistical support. You abandon the use of facts and instead rely on "what-ifs" to make your point. For every scenario you can invent where concealed carry makes things worse, I can come up with one where concealed carry makes things better, so playing the what-if game is disingenuous and a waste of column inches.
Your blind faith in the training of police officers is common, but misplaced. Police officers only qualify with their sidearms every 6 to 12 months, usually firing less than 100 rounds in the process. Most concealed carry licensees shoot that much every month, if not every week. The NYPD releases an annual report on their officers, and found that they only hit their intended target with 20 percent of rounds fired. North Carolina CCW licensees learn in training that North Carolina officers have a "hit ratio" of just 15 percent. Yet you seem to think that officers will drop a bad guy instantly, like in the movies. Further, you seem to be under the impression that officers are infallible in their "shoot/don't shoot" judgment. I wonder how Amadou Diallo would feel about that statement (Google him if you don't remember).
Beyond that, though, I think you've seen one too many John Woo movies. Real-world shootouts are not like the gunfights you see on TV. FBI and police data indicate that a real shootout lasts less than ten seconds and involves the firing of three to seven bullets, total, before one or both participants is down. How can you insist that this scenario is a greater potential danger than a 10-minute, uncontested, 170-round murderfest like Virginia Tech? Or a two-minute, uncontested, 48-round massacre like Northern Illinois University?
Concealed carry on campus is legal in 30 states. Twenty-nine allow schools to prohibit it by policy, but it's still legal. Utah actually forces its nine public universities to allow CCW. Colorado State and Blue Ridge Community College in Virginia allow it by choice. And in more than 60 combined semesters, what have those schools experienced? Not one gun crime. Not one gun accident. Not one gun theft. CCW holders simply don't cause problems. Logic tells us that someone willing to pay hundreds of dollars, go through many hours of training, be tested in writing and on the firing line, be fingerprinted and sign his or her mental health records over to the sheriff, is not someone that we should be particularly scared of. The ones we should be scared of are the criminals, who don't care about licensure. They just put a gun in their pants and go where they please, in carefree violation of the law.
You also focus too much on mass shootings, and not the other violent felonies that can -- and often are -- prevented by CCW. From 2004 to 2006, there were 11 forcible sex offenses and 14 felonious aggravated assaults on N.C. State's campus. Nationwide, in the same period, there were 35 murders, 8,114 forcible sex offenses, and 8,923 aggravated assaults. That's 17,072 violent felonies on campus. In the 48 states with provisions for concealed carry, the average rate of licensure is about 2 percent. Statistically speaking, a significant number of those 17,000 victims were licensed to carry -- and were forced by their lawmakers and school administrators to be defenseless.
A dose of reality for you: Anyone, at this very moment, could be carrying a concealed weapon at State. Someone intent on shooting up a classroom probably isn't too concerned that he might get expelled for carrying a gun. As Thomas Jefferson wrote, "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms ... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes ... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." It's time we, as a society, learned that guns in the hands of GOOD people are a GOOD thing.
Jason Blatt UNC School of Medicine '10 National Media Liaison, Students for Concealed Carry on Campus
