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Okla. shelves bill to allow concealed carry on campus

The Oklahoma Senate decided yesterday to shelve a bill that would have allowed concealed carry of firearms on college campuses to military veterans and those with firearms training. The bill, introduced by Republican Jason Murphey, faced strong opposition from students, faculty and administration on Oklahoma campuses, who said that it would have decreased safety rather than improved it. From the AP article:

University of Oklahoma President David Boren had argued the bill would hurt recruitment of students and faculty. It also would pose a dilemma for police trying to determine whether a person wielding a weapon was a “deranged gunman or someone who thinks he is doing good vigilante work.

I’m not an expert on police tactics, but why wouldn’t it be the same way that they determine real threats in any other situation? Thousands of law-abiding people carry concealed weapons outside of college campuses, yet the news pages aren’t splashed with stories of police accidentally gunning them down.

But I don’t imagine this would be a problem anyways, since the police habitually show up after campus shootings, just in time to clean up the bodies.

For more on the issue, check out Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. Also related are these stories about a Medford teacher who sued the school district for her right to carry. She lost but has since filed an appeal.

  1. Ron Simpson says:

    As an Oklahoman this pisses me off.
    It is not a “will of the people” thing, no matter how many teachers or administrators harp against it. The law governs ALL Oklahomans, not just those in school. So the majoirty of Oklahomans should be listened to, not just the small percentage of the population that are teachers and administrators.

    Cindy Ross, chairwoman of the (Oklahoma) Council of Presidents, said “This is not a campus safety issue; it’s not about the right to bear arms. All of us who have dedicated our careers to education believe it will make our jobs much more difficult.”

    Yet at the colleges that DO allow concealed carry, it is not now, nor has it ever been a problem.

    And I beg to differ with her. It is about the RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS. Any law that restricts that right is a law about the RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS! Sheesh. She calls herself an educator.

  2. Shadow says:

    spell check ‘people’ and ‘their’

  3. Shadow says:

    I know how tempting it is, when we are talking about the “will of the people” to say this is ok…. But what’s not ok is peope, in this case, maybe a minority, are having there rights trampled on!

  4. Vincent says:

    On one hand, I’m tempted to say “well, if the overwhelming opinion of students, faculty, and administration was that having concealed carry on campus was not something they wanted, then so be it.”

    On the other hand, if we were talking about the First Amendment instead of the Second, that kind of nonsense would never fly.

    In any case, depending on the authorities to come and save you from danger is a great way to end up dead.

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