Should Handguns (i.e. Those With Valid Concealed Handgun Permits) Be Allowed on College Campuses?

Update:  Glenn Reynolds has a terrific article in the NY Daily News:  "People Don't Stop Killers.  People With Guns Do.""

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Michelle Malkin thinks so.    So do I.

As news was breaking about the carnage at Virginia Tech, a reader e-mailed me a news story from last January. State legislators in Virginia had attempted to pass a bill that would have eased handgun restrictions on college campuses. Opposed by outspoken, anti-gun activists and Virginia Tech administrators, that bill failed.

Is it too early to ask: "What if?" What if that bill had passed? What if just one student in one of those classrooms had been in lawful possession of a concealed weapon for the purpose of self-defense?

If it wasn't too early for Keystone Katie Couric to be jumping all over campus security yesterday for what they woulda/coulda/shoulda done in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, and if it isn't too early for the New York Times editorial board to be publishing its knee-jerk call for more gun control, it darned well isn't too early for me to raise questions about how the unrepentant anti-gun lobbying of college officials may have put students at risk.

The back story: Virginia Tech had punished a student for bringing a handgun to class last spring—despite the fact that the student had a valid concealed handgun permit. . . (more)

Comments

[Dane]

I can to some degree follow the logic that it would be nice to be able to defend yourself under fire - but imagine 1% of the students was carrying guns in such a situation, that would be hundreds running around trying to find the gunman - how many of those hundred running around with a gun would be mistaken for the gunman and shot down on sight?!

[Unmuddle]

People who advocate concealed gun carry permits don't advocate vigilantism. Rather,the idea is when a man starts shooting people point blank and there is no resistance, someone with a handgun can intervene and stop the killing.