PSH In VA
On a bill introduced in VA to allow lawful CCW holders to carry on campus, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership breaks out the hysteria:
But Gilbert’s bill is a bad idea and would cost lives, according to Brian J. Siebel, senior attorney with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
College students often drink heavily and sometimes use illegal drugs and engage in other risky behavior, Siebel said. A number of college students also attempt suicide.
“If you introduce guns into that setting, you’re going to wind up with more dead college students,” he said. Nor will requiring permits to carry on campus keep alcohol and guns separated.
“People who are binge drinkers can still get CCW licenses in the state of Virginia,” he said.
Well, I guess they shouldn’t have automobiles either. Note, this legislation doesn’t actually, you know, arm anyone. It allows holders of CCW permits to carry on campuses. And this is your PSH of the week:
“Had Mr. Gilbert’s law gone through [in 2006] and [the Virginia Tech shooter] had gone out and applied for a concealed carry license in order to bring guns legally onto campus, the state of Virginia would have given him a license,” Siebel said.
Cho could have gotten a permit? Well, no, actually.
Update: Ahab has more.
January 11th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Siebel’s comments were ridiculous on so many levels. Even if Cho could have gotten a CCW permit (& he could not have as he would have failed the State background check) how would that have changed anything. It is not like he cared that he was breaking the gun free zone rule. Utah allows students to carry on campus, and where are all of the “dead students” predicted? They don’t exist because his words are nothing but blind hysteria with no facts to back them up.
I guess when facts are not on Siebel’s side he just makes stuff up.
January 11th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Wait wait.
Someone actually said that he’d have gotten a concealed carry permit to legally carry on campus? Seriously?
January 11th, 2008 at 11:01 am
How would Cho having a hypothetical CCW permit have made any difference whatsoever in what happened that day?
911 Caller: “There’s a maniac shooting people on campus.”
Dispatcher: “Does he have a permit? Yes? Then there’s nothing we can do.”
WTF??
January 11th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
The same could be said of police officers. Alcoholism and suicide rates among cops are greater than the general population.
January 11th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
That last statement points out how silly their argument really is! HE COULD’VE GOT A PERMIT!!?? Why, that would’ve allowed him to LEGALLY bring those guns on campus and shoot everybody up. Oh wait…
January 11th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
I commented over at Ahab’s on this. In summary, Cho could have gotten a permit had he applied for one. Essential in Virginia provided you meet the training requirements and fill out the application correct, if you can legally own guns, you get a permit. If you are denied a permit for other than administrative reasons (didn’t fill out the app right), you generally aren’t legally allowed to own guns at all. The permit disqualifiers are no different than the disqualifiers in an over-the-counter transaction going through NICS and the State Police background check.
January 11th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
As adjudicated mentally defective, cho could not own guns.
January 11th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
College students often drink heavily and sometimes use illegal drugs and engage in other risky behavior, Siebel said. A number of college students also attempt suicide.
“If you introduce guns into that setting, you’re going to wind up with more dead college students,” he said. Nor will requiring permits to carry on campus keep alcohol and guns separated.
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At the time of the Texas Tower shootings, on 1 August 1966, there were students and professors shooting back at Whitman. Now where do you suppose the students kept their guns? Logic says it was in their dorm rooms. Where else could they have been kept to allow the students to quickly arm themselves?
There didnt seem to be any problems with “guns and alchohol” on college campuses in 1966 so why would there be any now? Is the Brady Bunch suggesting that college students are stupider and less responsible nowadays?
January 11th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
“If you introduce guns into that setting, you’re going to wind up with more dead college students,” he said. Nor will requiring permits to carry on campus keep alcohol and guns separated.
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Virginia law doesn’t require that now for a CHP holder walking into a bar and you don’t see a spate of bar shootings involving alcohol. All the law states is you are not allowed to carry concealed in an establishment that serves alcohol (must carry openly) and you are not permitted to be intoxicated or impaired while carrying.
So why on earth would CHP on a campus be any different around alcohol than a student CHP holder off-campus at the local pub just off campus property?
CHP holders know these laws. I do.
The implication by the BC ought to be taken as an insult by any responsible, rights-minded college student that they are irresponsible and incapable of controlling themselves under such circumstances. The BC paints in broad strokes to plant an image, not to deal with facts.
Disgusting.
January 11th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Legislators and Executives “often drink heavily and sometimes use illegal drugs and engage in other risky behavior…”
“If you introduce legislation into that setting, you’re going to wind up with more [horrible laws].”
How can we then “…keep alcohol and [legislation] separated”?
Legislators “…who are binge drinkers can still [make laws and vote] in the state of Virginia.”
This attempt at depicting gun owners as “drunks with guns” goes back many years. This is just a new variation on a theme. Back before the ’94 vote on the “assault weapons” “ban” the meme was, “The connection between owners of semi-automatic rifles and binge drinking is disturbing” or some such crap.
Same worn-out playbook, different day.
January 11th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Well thank goodness Cho didn’t have a ccw permit or he might have hurt someone……what? What’s that you say? But he didn’t have a permit, so it must not have happened.
Weren’t you paying attention to the small dicked little girl screeching?
January 11th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Thats the same argument they used to use to keep guns/drugs/alcohol out of the hands of blacks and other minorities…