Sangamon
County Rifle Association
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights
Springfield, Illinois
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights
Springfield, Illinois
| |
Sangamon
County Rifle Association
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights Springfield, Illinois |
|
 Gun-free
zones are really "Kill Zones"
by Jim
Butler
President, SCRA April 2008 GunNews The tragic shooting at Northern Illinois University again shows the futility of the "gun free zone" mentality that only gives a false sense of security in schools, malls, and anywhere else they are put in place. They should be called what they really are: "kill zones". "Gun free zones" have become a magnet for deranged individuals to murder defenseless people. These individuals have the initiative. They pick the time, place and manner of their killing sprees. These people maximize their chances of success against helpless and unarmed victims. "Gun free zones" have given us nothing but body counts, and should be done away with before the next senseless mass killing occurs. The Illinois shooting is particularly distressing because it happened in one of the two remaining states in which anti-gun state lawmakers and equally anti-gun governors haven't allowed law abiding citizens the chance to equally defend themselves against armed criminals. One of the former governors who opposed the Illinois citizens right to defend themselves is now in prison. To make matters even worse the present Illinois Governor is under federal investigation. Illinois sure knows how to pick corrupt politicians, especially in the Chicago area. These anti-gun political hacks have failed miserably in their responsibility for public safety, and the blood of all these victims is on their hands. Equal guilt is also on the hands of gun control extremists everywhere. "Gun free zones" are nothing more than "kill zones" for unarmed people to be slaughtered by the next insane individual. It took six minutes before the police arrived at the Northern Illinois University "kill zone". This was much faster than the police response at Virginia Tech last year. We can't fault the Illinois police in their response time. However, it was simply not fast enough. The killer and most of his victims were already dead. From this point on the police simply became historians trying to piece this tragedy together. The only way this murderous rampage could have been stopped was by someone with a firearm and the courage to use it. For far too long Americans have been brainwashed into thinking it's better not to resist when attacked. Unfortunately, that only emboldens the criminals as far too many incidents over the years have proved. The only school, church and mall shootings that have been successfully stopped; have been by armed citizens who intervened. It seems that after these massacres a reporter always interviews a father with a daughter in college and asks him if he would feel safer if someone who had a legal concealed carry permit, armed, and was in the same class. The standard answer from the father is he believes there should be no firearms in the school at all. And so the killings continue in the utopian safe zones called "gun free zones" espoused by the anti-self-defense movement. And so the mass killings go on in spite of colleges with students who are police officers, both active and retired, military veterans, many of whom have combat experience, and trained civilians with concealed carry permits. Fed up with being helpless potential shooting victims of domestic terrorists, college students across the country have organized a national campaign in support of policies allowing concealed carry on college campuses. Known as Students for Concealed Carry on Campus (SCCC), it has gathered more than 18,000 members, becoming the largest non-profit student organization calling for the right to carry concealed firearms on campuses for safety and security reasons. These students have realized the right to bear arms is a fundamental right to defend themselves. They have seen the futility of "gun free zones" for themselves and don't want to become victims because of them. According to a description on SCCC's Facebook page, students comprise 90 percent of SCCC's membership while parents, faculty and others make up the remaining 10 percent. SCCC is calling attention to the issue by scheduling a second protest with empty holsters on campuses from April 21st to the 25th, a week after the one-year anniversary of the shootings at Virginia Tech on April 16. These students realize the two biggest threats to their safety today are dangerous "gun free zones" and lawmakers resistance to right-to-carry laws. And there are other dangers to students that additional emotion driven gun control laws will not stop. In spite of claims otherwise, Virginia Tech is not the worse school killing in U.S. history. On May 18, 1927, a disgruntled school-board member killed 45 people and injured 58 -- most of them second-grade to sixth-grade children - when he set off bombs at Bath Consolidated School in Bath, Michigan. Return to SCRA Home Page |