Wednesday, April 18, 2007

A VA Tech graduate student on being unarmed on campus

Dated August 21, 2006. Yes you read that right, 8 months before the Cho shooting. From Clayton Cramer's blog:

On Aug. 21 at about 9:20 a.m., my graduate-level class was evacuated from the Squires Student Center. We were interrupted in class and not informed of anything other than the following words: "You need to get out of the building."

Upon exiting the classroom, we were met at the doors leading outside by two armor-clad policemen with fully automatic weapons, plus their side arms. Once outside, there were several more officers with either fully automatic rifles and pump shotguns, and policemen running down the street, pistols drawn.

It was at this time that I realized that I had no viable means of protecting myself.

Please realize that I am licensed to carry a concealed handgun in the commonwealth of Virginia, and do so on a regular basis. However, because I am a Virginia Tech student, I am prohibited from carrying at school because of Virginia Tech's student policy, which makes possession of a handgun an expellable offense, but not a prosecutable crime.

I had entrusted my safety, and the safety of others to the police. In light of this, there are a few things I wish to point out.

First, I never want to have my safety fully in the hands of anyone else, including the police.

Second, I considered bringing my gun with me to campus, but did not due to the obvious risk of losing my graduate career, which is ridiculous because had I been shot and killed, there would have been no graduate career for me anyway.

Third, and most important, I am trained and able to carry a concealed handgun almost anywhere in Virginia and other states that have reciprocity with Virginia, but cannot carry where I spend more time than anywhere else because, somehow, I become a threat to others when I cross from the town of Blacksburg onto Virginia Tech's campus.

Of all of the emotions and thoughts that were running through my head that morning, the most overwhelming one was of helplessness.

That feeling of helplessness has been difficult to reconcile because I knew I would have been safer with a proper means to defend myself.

I would also like to point out that when I mentioned to a professor that I would feel safer with my gun, this is what she said to me, "I would feel safer if you had your gun."

The policy that forbids students who are legally licensed to carry in Virginia needs to be changed.
Remember, only YOU are responsible for your own safety. Not the Police. Not your employer. Not your neighbor. Nor the bystander on the street. YOU.

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ink blots, Damn Skippy!

April 18, 2007 9:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Perhaps you will hit a nerve here. Let's hope that thinking and common sense will come about before it's no longer needed.

April 19, 2007 9:25 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wowzers! How prophetic was that?????

Powerful stuff, to be sure.

April 19, 2007 11:44 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"While it may feel uncomfortable
or even unprotected to carry one's
firearm on any campus whether
license to carry or not there is
always that what-if scenario that
seems to lurk around. What if the
carrier of the firearm is overrunned by an aggressor not
giving the carrier a chance to get
to his weapon? What if this same
aggressor renders the carrier of
the weapon unconscious/TKO, and
then takes the weapon? What if
this same aggressor uses that
weapon and commence to use it in
the same way as Cho or other mass
murderers? What if the carrier of
the weapon survives the attack
and learn that his registered
hand-gun was used to killed other
students in his own classroom?
No. In my own opinion, all weapons
especially guns should be banned
from campuses indefinitely! See
you at: www.yifii.com

April 19, 2007 6:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

wow. A lot of 'what ifs', but a few were left out by accident:

1. What if unarmed space aliens invaded a college campus, abducted some students, found the weapons, and thus decided to storm an invasion?
2. What if the students pulled out a concealed weapon to defend him/herself and others, and this made the mass murderer who ignored the concealed weapons law REALLY ANGRY and thus killed more people in a fit of rage?
3. What if a student carrying a concealed gun returned fire, killing the mass murderer and saving dozens of students but got sued by the mass murderer's parents and/or ACLU and then court proceedings tied up precious judicial resources and someone who spilled hot coffee on themselves could not sue McDonalds and was left without the millions of dollars deserved?

April 20, 2007 11:20 AM  
Blogger Rorschach said...

I might point out that this is not just an exercise in logic, there are numerous documented cases of legal gun owners stopping rampages.

Anyone recall the Pearl Mississippi shooting? The assistant principal ran to his car and retrieved his 1911 .45 cal and stopped the rampage. (the weapon by the way was (thankfully) illegally on school grounds!)

Then there was the 8th grade school dance in Pennsylvania that was stopped by the dance hall owner.

There are a number of these documented cases. There is also a documented case of what happens when a gun owner follows the law when the criminal doesn't.

Remember the Luby's Cafeteria Shooting in 1991? Dr. Suzanne Gratia Hupp had left her gun in her vehicle when she went inside to eat with her parents to eat lunch. George Hennard did no such thing and killed 23 people and wounded 20 others in front of her. Now thanks to her, Texas has Concealed Carry.

April 23, 2007 11:41 AM  

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