All well and good, but the justification for allowing guns is to combat domestic terrorism, which I think is futile. Campus has trained and vigilant police officers and LSU has far less crime that most cities even though campus itself would the 9th largest city in the state. Rapes and murders are very rare. If students were allowed to carry guns, how soon would it be before some drunken frat party had a shooting? How soon would a professor be threatened with a gun for failing a student? How soon would campus celebrations end up with people firing guns into the air? No, if there is a crime problem, we need to hire more campus police with guns, not arm the students and faculty. Just ask the police what they think about armed students.
Hire more cops? Thats a good one. Police don't prevent crime. Police solve crimes after they have been committed. I'm not saying that the powers that be at LSU just say to everybody-Hey, its OK. Everybody can bring their guns to school. The fact is, I am sure there on any given class day there a number of students who are carrying concealed weapon on campus, including to clasess. Its very easy to put a handgun in a knapsack or a briefcase and as long as the weapon isn't brandished who would know. If you make it legal there would be more law abiding students with concealed carry permits who would do it if it wre legal. Police can only respond after they get a report that a nutcase has already started shooting up a classroom. Thats way too late. Your argument that LSU is the 9th largest city in Louisiana is a fallacy if you think about it. The city of Hammond has about the same population as the campus of LSU but Hammond is spread out of many square miles compared to the LSU campus and has a much more diverse population that LSU. To understand the entirerity of the LSU Community you have to extend the boundaries of the campus itself to include both the nearby upscale neighborhoods where many of the academia reside as well as the crime ridden areas where many students have apartments off campus. When I was at LSU I lived on Alaska Street for 2 years. Alaska Street is pretty much in the heart of the ghetto. If I had gone to school unarmed that would have meant that I would have been unarmed every time I returned home. Are you suggesting that students nowdays who live in similar conditions stash their gun in a tree or a manhole on the way to school and pick it up on the way home? As I stated in a previous post, I always had a gun in my car but I never carried one around campus or to class. Tines have changed. Psychos shoot up classrooms, post offices, Offices and other places where large numbers of people are likely to be. I, for one, refused to become a random victim as long as I have the ability to defend myself. And if I can save the lives of other people who would other wise become random shooting vitims thats all to the good.
You can't be that naive. Let me put this as simply as I can. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. LSU has no terrorism problem. LSU has no murder problem. LSU has no rape problem. LSU has no problem with people having to defend themselves with guns. Right now we have no problems with armed people pulling guns, but you would change that. Why? I own plenty of guns myself, but I don't need to pack one around all the time to keep from feeling helpless. Whatever. OK the 10th biggest city. The point, which you missed, is that LSU is adequately protected by the campus police and if we have more security problems for any reasonm then LSu can hire more professionals to handle it. Arming the mob is an insane "solution" to a problem that does not exist, amigo. :insane: I understand, I lived in The Bottom for 19 years. I never carried a firearm. I took one in the truck when traveling after midnight, but I never had need for it. Yeah, I was held up at knife point twice and lost about 30 bucks. Even if I had a gun, I wasn't going to shoot a teenager and spend 3 to 6 in Angola for it. How many times were you assaulted in the two blocks between Alaska street and LSU? Well, then you are in fact more reasonable than the position you take here. I'm happy. What are the chances, my friend? It's a nice fantasy, but what are the chances you will ever get that heroic shot? My fear is that part of the "times have changed" business that you mention is more and more people carrying weapons, most without carry permits. Little problems become deadly problems. Instead of your radio getting stolen from your dorm room, your .45 gets stolen. The cops are totally against this for that reason. They could take an issue with you some day and when they find that gun you are carrying they will become unpleasant individuals. For every lone nut gunman that an armed student could take down (once a century or so, maybe) there will be 20 or 30 gun-related campus incidents annually with a potentially higher death toll and a greater chance of innocents getting killed than a random nut-job walking in off the street.
this is the way i always figure it. if i go out to get pizza in the south bronx after a yankee game, and in the ghetto i get mugged by a couple puerto ricans, what do i lose? the 60 bucks i have on me? my timex watch and my $150 cellphone? i dont really care. i would rather lose that than have to lug a gun around all the time. what a hassle that would be. i am aware that things would be plenty different if i was a girl. as a dude, i dont even mind a minor beating, i can take it. would be a fun story to tell, i would throw one good punch and then get my face mashed in. i wouldnt mind unless i was really disfigured or crippled. i like a nice black eye now and again. i am with red on this one. i cant see how carrying a gun is worth the trouble. i dont oppose other folks carrying guns, but i dont think it makes anything much safer that folks are allowed.
If you shoot somebody who pulls a gun or a knife on you and tries to rob you and you shoot them then you are excercising your right to self defense and you won't be convicted if you are even charged with killing them. I don't care if I have $1 or $10,000 on me. Its my money and nobody is going to take it from me without a fight.
martin, you live in New York, the state where Bernie Goetz was sent to prison for defending himself from 4 armed robbers and the state where another man was sent to prison for shooting a man with a gun he had legally purchased in Florida before moving to New York and had applied for a license from New York City but the paperwork had been held up by red tape. the man he shot had broken into his house and was holding a knife to his son's throat.
I am all for self defense, and own many guns, but human life is more valuable than money or a DVD player. Unless the threat is on my life I'm not going to shoot another person over a few bucks.
The point isn't "Oh I just lost $20 bucks so it's not a big deal". It is a big deal. Like SF touched on, how many people after you has that jerk held up, or possibly even killed because they didn't cooperate? I guarantee if some peckerhead broke into my house and I crushed his face with my baseball bat and blew his knees out with my 12 gauge he'd reconsider next time burglary was on his to do list. The way I see it is, first you have to come in my yard. You then have to make it past my dog. You then have to either break a window or pry a door open to get in. At that point, you have had plenty opportunity to reconsider and you are fair game. You have crossed the line that should not be crossed and it's your own freaking fault if I turn your head inside out.
and for all the machismo thrown around here, i think that most that killed someone trying to take their $60 off them would be somewhat emotionally scarred from the incident. kinda like a woman having an abortion (easy, i said kinda)
