I knew the folks on the Houston Chronicle editorial board are altogether opposed to the natural right of self-defense with the best tools available, so it was a given that they'd oppose the college gun bill -- but I certainly didn't expect this:
...It’s a horrifying thought. It is our fervent hope that cooler heads in the Senate will prevail and block its passage. Students have enough on their plates without having to worry that horsing around, drinking or otherwise acting like a college student could result in an unintended tragedy.
...
Within the last month, 57 people have died in eight mass shootings around the country.… Most of the killers were registered gun owners.
So, unless I miss my guess here, the Chronsters think that the 50 million to 80 million gun owners in this country are all ticking time bombs. If they don't think that then why would they say such a thing? I wonder how far it is from that to having us tattooed, or making us wear special patches...yeah, I know. Maybe that's a bit farfetched. But then so is the proposition that that those of us who own guns -- between a third and half of this country's adult population -- are all just waiting for the right thing to flip our internal switches and make us go on murderous rampages. As for that "registered gun owners" crack...one wonders if that was a Freudian slip by the editorial board letting us all know what they're going to advocate next. I certainly am glad I am not a college student anymore, because I'd really hate to be thought of as an overgrown infant. I do still find such a line of reasoning quite insulting, though. I'd think that most of the college students who take the time and make the effort to get that CHL are well aware of what could happen if they're "horsing around" with that loaded gun. One wonders if anyone at 801 Texas Avenue has ever handled or shot a gun.
As twisted as they are though, it gets even worse as we go on to the letters to the editor:
If the sponsors believe their bill will have a deterrent effect making campuses safer, then I challenge them to apply the logic to their own environment and allow citizens with licenses to bring concealed handguns into the House and Senate galleries.
And what would the problem be with this? The legislature was the body that approved the CHL system in the first place. Not letting CHL holders bring their sidearms in the capitol would seem to imply they don't trust us, which would further imply that they don't trust the system that they themselves approved. But then they should be letting us carry in there licensed or not. So. Do our legislators trust us or don't they? If the answer's "No," then we have a bad, bad problem, folks. How in the bloody HELL did we let ourselves get here?
The cowardice of bearing arms has no place in our institutions of higher learning. Civilization is difficult enough to achieve and maintain without promoting an arms race within the very institutions we rely on to teach the rules and processes of civil society.
Cowardice of bearing arms? WTF? I am completely speechless here. I would think the cowardly thing was burying one's head in the sand, as this writer seems to do. And as for said arms and how they might relate to the "rules and processes of civil society"...well, if this writer was actually thinking instead of spouting off big words and trying to come off as some sort of intellectual, he'd realize that every now and then there are those who break those rules in rather violent fashion, as we've seen...and ultimately, the only way those laws are going to be enforced is with the threat of lethal force. That's just the way human nature is. The only question is, who is going to wield that force? I would argue that those who want to push that responsibility off onto others are the real cowards here, but then maybe that's just me.
I will wager anyone we will have another “event” before 2010. Then, of course, good old Texas will make the front page and TV news once again.Once again? When was the last time we did make the front page for any kind of incident like the one this writer's implying will happen? The one incident that I can think of is the shooting at the Tyler courthouse in February 2005...and from what I've read about that incident (NOT in the MSM, mind you), were it not for the bullet-resistant vest the asshole with the rifle was wearing, the shots fired from the Colt 1911 held by Texas Concealed Handgun License holder Mark Allen Wilson would have neutralized him before he endangered any more lives. I will wager that if we do have another "event," it will be in a gun-free zone and the above-quoted writer will be calling for yet more stringent gun laws.
College campus police patrols are all that students need for security.
And nail files, rat-tail combs, keys, etc. ...
Thought for the day, guys: A society which fails to recognize its citizens' natural, God-given right to self-defense, a right inherent to those citizens' very existence, is a society unfit to survive.
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