So, a fake gunman with a very obviously fake gun bursts into a classroom and threatens a class. The school has been warned through text messages and e-mail about this.
Let's say that, upon entering the classroom, some twitchy undergrad who happens to be packing heat stands up and shoots the guy dead.
Would this strengthen the case for allowing concealed weapons into classrooms, because a threatening man was dispatched swiftly and efficiently, or would it weaken the case, because an uninformed student overreacted and killed a man?
My two cents: having armed students in the classroom would be terrifying.
I've seen how the average student handles corrosive acids, deadly poisons, and flammable solvents with someone there to give them very specific direction. I've seen students react to startling accidents. It usually isn't pretty.
And you can't wash off a bullet.
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4 comments:
Armed students would have meant I lasted one week at Registrar before having my head blown off.
When it comes to the classroom, most haven't even done their reading assignments -- are they actually going to remember to bring their gun in case of threats? Would students who are too stupid to drop their own classes actually make a clean shot?
No, they'll be carrying them only to whack the poor redhead at Registar.
Guns on a campus is the stupidest idea ever.
Perhaps this would have actually eased your problems with registration nightmares. If you don't fill out your forms correctly, you can either suck it up, or it's pistols at dawn with Lara Croft's twin sister.
I think an important point is missed here, this will not turn a college campus into an armed camp, not everyone is going to be running around carrying guns. It takes a bit of dedication to go through the process of authorization and permitting procedures to carry, I don’t remember many students when I was in college with the spare cash to afford a concealed carry permit. The people who do are often dedicated gun owners, who understand the responsibilities of ownership and concealed carry. They also tend to be good shots. This is not an escalating arms race, it is a knee-jerk reaction to the shootings on college campus. It is feel good legislation (concealed carry on campus). On the other hand, it should have been permitted long ago, the out come of Virginia and Illinois may or may not have been different, I don’t know. The same way I don’t know if your fake gunman would have been fired upon. I think a more realistic scenario would have been the fake gunman bursting in, and one of two things most likely happened, the concealed carrier would have had the experience to recognize a red training gun, or if not, would have drawn on the fake gunman and the gunman would have given up, knowing he was quite outgunned by a real weapon, people seldom just draw and shoot, that takes a lot of training to build that detachment, most often only seen in military veterans, but then they would also recognize the fake weapon. Since this is a “what if” situation, the most likely outcome to the “what if” would have ended up being a lot of stress, but no shots fired. If shots were fired, then who is really responsible, the idiot in charge of bring a gunman into a class 8 days after Northern Illinois’ tragedy, the idiot off duty officer for volunteering to do it, or the student who is about to feel really bad about shooting some threatening idiot with a fake gun? Gun control proponents may not like it, but castle doctrine is being expanded in most stated, not only can you defend yourself in your house, now you can defend yourself where ever you happen to be.
I realize that allowing students to carry concealed weapons wouldn't suddenly turn the campus into Deadwood, but it would drastically increase the number of guns present. More guns could, in theory, increase the chance of stopping a crazed shooter. Unfortunately for both sides of this debate, there's no data on the positive effects of guns on college campuses, because guns are uniformly prohibited and shootings are exceptionally uncommon.
So, in the hypothetical case, the fake shooter would certainly have reacted in a way so as to preserve his and everyone else's safety, but I don't think that's how a crazy person would act. I'd imagine that pulling a gun on a nutball would make me the primary target in the room pretty quickly.
But I guess that's the problem with thought experiments - they don't ever actually solve anything.
Also, you're completely right about it being a totally boneheaded move to bring a fake gunman into a class a week after a shooting, fake gun or not. Whoever thought that could end well was not paying attention.
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