They actually got a UTK faculty member to go on record as being opposed to guns on campus ? Shocked. Maybe my American history teacher could hide them behind that idiotic Carter/Mondale poster he always brought to class.

<
even allow college students to carry guns to class?
>

I suppose while I was there I never thought about it one way or the other, but there is pretty much no more reason to ban someone from carrying guns at a University than there is to ban guns at a car wash. A University setting (or a national park) just gives the control freaks a good excuse. Nanny state idgets.

Modify the T's?

If Lumpy's packin' heat, should Mark as well?

These questions, as well as many others, will be answered on the next episode of SOAP.

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trained law enforcement personnel

You mean like this one, or this one, or this one, or this one, or ...

Point for the gun advocates: The people carrying guns will still be required to be permitted which means training and background checks which means very qualified people will be the ones that are armed.

Point against the gun advocates: More guns on campus means more opportunity for someone to accidentally lay a weapon down where a potential shooter could pick it up. With greater supply of weapons, will shootings increase but be less effective as armed teachers and students act to take down the shooter?

My thoughts: All or none. If you are going to allow the teachers to be armed, let the students be armed too. Remember, those students also have to have permits, training and background checks...then again so did all the officers linked above.

Doug McCaughan
(link...)

Self-described "flaming liberal." We're not sticking any unwelcome labels on anybody over there.

Side note: Tennessee requires you to be 21 to get the TN permit. Would limit the number of students eligible to carry significantly. We have no way of identifying how many TN students have the permit (FERPA would keep us from getting a list of their names, see), but if the Ft. Sanders area is any indication of permit rate among the student population, it's very, very low. I took a look at the results of our analysis from April, and it shows a total of 20 permits across the two Census tracts Ft. Sanders falls in. That comes to less than half a percent in a state where 3 percent of all Tennesseans have the permit.

If you believe that the 2nd amendment says that we have the right to bear arms, why are you going to let them make you have a background check? Or be trained? or be of sound mind? Or limit the caliber of your arms? And how fast it can fire?

Aren't machine guns arms? How can they limit that? What about hand grenades? Hand held rocket launchers? Light artillery?

Or on the other hand, perhaps you believe that the words, "a well regulated militia" have some inherent meaning, and you only have the absolute right to bear arms in that context, which makes every other situation the responsibility of society as a whole.

I ask the question this way:

You and Stacey Campfield are taking a class together. Do you feel comfortable with Stacey having a concealed weapon?

(I realize this is an implausible scenario, since you attend internet universities by yourself)

Let's get behind a slight modification of Chris Rock's idea and impose a $5,000 per round use tax on ammunition. The massive layoffs in the firarms and ammunition industries that would be sure to follow could work to our advantage by increasing the domestic employment pool for Wal-Mart, enabling the retailer to lower wage costs and thus offer lower prices. Healthcare costs should also decline as hospitals reduce overhead, needing fewer mergency room physicians standing around with little to do. Fast food chains should also benefit, as, indeed, should all service industries as more workers compete for the same amount of jobs. The ripple effect may be just what this ailing economy needs.

I'd call this plan "bullet proof." Do ya think Gomer Campfield would get behind it?

Larry Van Guilder

Point for the gun advocates: The people carrying guns will still be required to be permitted which means training and background checks which means very qualified people will be the ones that are armed.

Ha! I'm pretty sure an eight hour handgun safety course does not make you "very qualified".

I think it makes as much sense as everything else lately. Perhaps it would deter gun crime if everyone had guns...it is like borrowing money to get out of debt.

______________________________________
Trying to not make matters worse.

I think that every baby born in the good ole US ofA should be provided with a AK47, BAR, Grease Gun, M16 or equivalent and each State should be responsible for providing sufficient ammo. I believe that will solve all concerned, we are already killing each other anyway and this will only expedite our ultimate future.

Though I do consider myself a "second amendment Liberal", most college students I know can barely drive down the street without getting ticketed for something or causing a wreck with a cell phone glued to their head. Until they can handle a car well enough to make it a few miles up the road without incident, I think we should shelve any idea of letting the entire student body run around armed.

They're just too young and full of hormones to be permitted to do that.
The way this particular shooting occurred, committed by one who was known and liked, no one would have been able to respond fast enough in the absence of a visual threat.
Issuing Kevlar with the school logo and a cool designer label on it would make more sense.

Of course, the government could simply allocate funds for armed, well trained security in each hall. Campus police forces are normally staffed by idiots and donut-sucking dumptrucks, so they can do little more than taser an unarmed student or two.

It's touchy, but I think a campus full of guns and testosterone would increase the possibility of campus shootings, not decrease it.

"The mind is like a parachute, it only works when it's open."

. . most college students I know can barely drive down the street without getting ticketed for something or causing a wreck with a cell phone glued to their head.

Come to think of it that is, in itself, haphazard use of a lethal weapon.

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Perhaps the Rep needs to modify his bill to include mandatory arming of theater ushers as well.

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This bill is another example of Stacey putting out something that he knows isn't going to go anywhere. Thus, he avoids responsibilty for its consequences (accidental shootings, drunken gunfights, etc.) and, yet, at the same convince everyone in his district that he is a real conservative deserving of reelection. And he will be reelected, make no mistake about that.

Take Care, Be Good and don't play in the street!

SteveMule