Students Right to Fight Back
This is the text of a speech I gave to one of my classes on April 19th, 2007, following the massacre at Virginia Tech on April 16th, 2007. It deals with the campus policy at most universities prohibiting students from carrying firearms for self-defense, ignoring any permits the student may have. I am also putting up a post that elaborates on this speech, I was limited to 8 minutes, and couldn't get in anywhere near as much information as I'd have liked to.
Students Right to Fight Back
You guys came today expecting to hear me talk about Digital Rights, the lack thereof, and the consumer, however something as meaningless as rights on the Internet needs to take a back seat when we have human beings being slaughtered and denied any chance of self defense.
On Monday morning, around 9:45am, a gunman walked into classes at Virginia Tech, shooting anything that moved. This is not the first time such blind hatred and cruelty has been shown on that campus, or any other school campus, but it is by far the bloodiest. But we cannot just dwell on the past, we must learn from our mistakes and make a better future, and that is what I want to speak to you about today, preventing such a tragedy in the future.
Some may think my next words will be in favor of stricter gun control, others will guess in favor of a ban on violent video games, there's gonna be at least one person guessing that I'll say we need to censor what our kids watch while growing up. No, I'm not talking about any of that. What I'm talking about is the gall of Universities all over the country to ban students from having legal firearms on their campuses for self-defense. This is an issue that, as we saw Monday, can easily affect any and all college students in horrific ways, and must be dealt with before more die.
Lets quickly look at the laws in favor of guns. The United States Bill of Rights clearly gives citizens the right to “bear arms” in the Second Amendment. Whether this is only related to forming militias, using automatic rifles to hunt, or simply having a pair of bear arms mounted on your fire place, I'm not here to debate. Most will agree, however, that this gives people the right to have access to some form of firearm, and that it is for self-defense. Regardless, almost every state Constitution explicitly gives the right to carry firearms, and I'm just looking to give you a broad understanding of where this all originated. Indiana's Constitution, in fact says “The people shall have a right to bear arms, for the defense of themselves and the State,” in Article 1, Section 32. This explicitly gives the right for Indiana citizens to carry a gun for self-defense, there's no two ways about it.
Now here's the problem, state run universities decide to ignore the state constitution, and ban all weapons on campus. Virginia Tech's “Campus and Workplace Violence Prevention Policy”, in part 2, section 2, deals with this, saying:
“The university’s employees, students, and volunteers, or any visitor or other third party attending a sporting, entertainment, or educational event, or visiting an academic or administrative office building or residence hall, are further prohibited from carrying, maintaining, or storing a firearm or weapon on any university facility, even if the owner has a valid permit...”
Sure, I understand this is to “create a safe learning environment,” but did you catch the phrase “even if the owner has a valid permit”. This means that even if the state recognizes the individual is competent to carry and operate a handgun, and the individual is on state property, they cannot have it. I would like to note at this time that Virginia even requires proof of training in order to obtain a handgun permit. You have to attend a class teaching about gun safety and how to shoot before you're allowed to have the weapon, so these aren't just wackos that mailed in $15 for the piece of paper. It is a bit odd that Virginia could certify individuals to carry weapons to defend themselves, yet Virginia Tech is able to trump that constitutional right in their policies.
This is not the first incident Virginia Tech has had with lone gunmen. The first day of classes last fall were canceled because an escaped prisoner was running around shooting people. Here a ban on firearms didn't stop a criminal from killing two police officers, yet Tech kept this policy in place, even after they got a deadly glimpse that all their policy does is protect criminals from return fire. To quote Tech spokesman Larry Hincker in an article by Kevin Miller, published in The Roanoke Times on April 13, 2005 two years before this tragedy, “I think its fair to say that we believe guns don't belong in the classroom, In an academic community you should be free from fear.” Now I completely agree, guns do not belong in the classroom, however bad guys don't care where guns should and should not be. The shooter Monday chose to bring a gun into a classroom, and use it for evil. What we need is a way for those innocent people that want a safe environment to be free from fear, and know they can protect themselves if this were to happen again. If the good citizens all leave their guns at home, you don't have a place “free from fear” you have the makings of a slaughter because there is no one to stop the bad guys, as we saw Monday.
My ex-girlfriend, who is still one of my best friends, goes to Tech. In fact, she should have been in the class next door to the classes that were massacred as well as in the hallway where students were shot dead, but I thank God she chose to sleep in that morning. To say it scares me thinking she could be dead right now is beyond an understatement, but what's scarier is I know that given a chance, she could and would have ended that situation, but Virginia Tech would not have let her. Tech would rather hope nothing bad happens than gives students such as her the chance to defend themselves and their classmates. She’s a good shooter, and if this situation had happened anywhere else, she would be allowed to have her firearm, and she could have turned the situation from a massacre into just a few dead, but instead this happened at Virginia Tech, where they don't believe in students defending themselves. School shootings have been stopped due to students having weapons; this isn’t just some dream of going out Hollywood style.
As an article on CNN.com published January 17, 2002 tells it, the Appalachian School of Law was assaulted on January 16, 2002. A professor and student were shot dead before anything could be done, but at the first sound of gun fire two students ran to their cars, drew their firearms, and subdued the attacker. He was taken alive, and was able to stand trial for the murders. In addition, research in the mid 1990s done by Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz showed that guns were used in self-defense as much as 2.5 million times a year, as opposed to there being less than 50,000 gun deaths. Also, a national survey in 1996 showed that violent crime fell after states made it legal to carry concealed firearms. So guns are more likely to save lives, than take them.
Now, I know exactly what you're thinking. This wacko nut wants everyone to have guns on campus; we're all going to get shot. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm advocating is universities allow students to own weapons that they are certified for and want to have. If a student is caught with a weapon that is unlicensed, they'll be dealt with exactly as if they were off campus. If they have a permit, then they will get that fighting chance they would have if they were just 10 feet off campus. The fact of the matter is that stepping over an imaginary boundary separating public land from public university land should not remove a citizen's right to defend themselves.
All I'm asking for, is for students to be given a fighting chance. Our history proves there's always going to be another Cho Seung-Hui out there no matter how well we try to raise our kids, and by forbidding students from the choice of having guns to defend themselves, universities may as well sign their death certificates. To quote Mike Manning, former head of Fort Worth's SWAT team in the Houston Chronicle: “As far as illegal guns go, about the only way to prevent them would be to prevent all guns, and I don't see that happening.”
I wish I could go into more detail, there's many many more cases of guns saving lives. I'd love to talk about Indiana law regarding guns, and IU's policies. It'd be nice if I could talk about the 2006 Virginia bill to allow guns on state campuses, and how many times Virginia Tech's anti-gun policy had come under fire in the years before this tragedy, but I don't have time. If you want to answer these questions yourself, ask me, and I'll give you a very long bibliography to get started on figuring out why students should be allowed guns.
When I set out to write this speech, I wasn't intending to place blame for the shootings. I'm not looking to demonize Virginia Tech in any way, it's a great school. But as I wrote it, I realized that these school shootings are in some part the responsibility of the campus rules. Virginia Tech set up an environment that gave students a false sense of security, and prevented them for having a fighting chance. Most universities across the country do the same thing, and this must be ended here and now. If you get anything from this speech, if it moves you at all, take this away: Let us not let these 33 die in vain, this is a chance for us to reform our laws to give the next batch of victims a fighting chance. Please, write your school's President, write your congressman, write anyone that can have any impact and give students the right to live.
Works Cited
- Campus and Workplace Violence Prevention Policy. Blacksburg, Virginia: Virginia Tech, 2005.
- Indiana Constitution
- Kleck, Gary, and Marc Gertz. "Armed Resistance to Crime: the Prevalence and Nature of Self-Defense with a Gun." The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1995).
- Miller, Kevin. "Virginia Tech's Ban on Guns May Draw Legal Fire." The Roanoke Times 13 Apr. 2005.
- Rios, Carlos A. "Tracing the Terror." Houston Chronicle 1997
- Solomon, Mark. "Packing.Org." Packing.Org. 2007. 18 Apr. 2007
- "Suspect in Law School Slayings Arraigned." CNN 17 Jan. 2002. 18 Apr. 2007
