I think women going to college should carry guns

[Chiefmanwillcatch]

The girl who was abducted from her dorm. The hitchhiker who wasn't a college girl but was on a walk by herself.

Now these two coed hatecrime murders.

[alanm]

Originally Posted by Jenson71

UNI and the other regent universities in Iowa voted this school year to arm campus police.

There were a few very vocal people against it, but overall, I'd say it was pretty split.

Personally, I don't mind cops having a gun at all. I'm also for cops having top-notch training in dealing with situations and violence prevention sort of things.

I knew they were going to have to be allowed, even though the teachers' committee was against it. No president would have said no to the guns and then wanted to have faced the heat if a tragedy did strike.

Don't know about Northern Iowa but most campus police I know of are armed. Northern Iowa must be a bastion of liberalism.

[Jenson71]

Originally Posted by alanm

Don't know about Northern Iowa but most campus police I know of are armed. Northern Iowa must be a bastion of liberalism.

Arming campus police is kind of a recent development - and not just in Iowa. Like I said, it was all the regent universities that just decided this - University of Iowa, Iowa State, and UNI.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by frazod

A responsible person with a gun is keenly aware of the consequences of using it. Just because a gun owner gets pissed off doesn't mean he's going to riddle his/her antagonist with bullets just because he/she can.

I've owned a gun of one sort or another all my life. I have a pretty bad temper and for about five years had a serious coke problem. Despite this, during the course of my entire life, I've had occasion to point a gun at another human being twice; both times in self defense. In both cases, the offenders went away rather than get shot (which is the general idea). I've never had to pull the trigger and have never killed anyone. And while there have been occasions where I really, really wanted to turn some asshole into a bullet-riddled corpse, that whole getting thrown in a pound-me-in-the-ass prison for decades thing has always been a strong deterrent to convince me not to do it.

Again, I'm with you. I just find it hard to believe that everyone will have that same self-control if they were allowed to carry 24-7.

The bottom line is that I don't trust people.

Without getting on a tangent, people can't be trusted to pick up dog poop where dogs aren't allowed, people can't be trusted not to smoke in fire zones (and I live in one and see people smoking all the time. At the lookout point in my avatar, there's a huge no smoking sign though when I walked over there on Friday, people were smoking).

If everyone where as responsible as you and Alan (or even my dad, a 30 year gun owner) I'd have no problem. But the reality is that even if an extremely small percentage of people aren't, we could see hundreds of deaths a year, far more than the tragedies of VaTech and the like.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by alanm

Breaking it down further like you did seems logical. There would be very few licensed to carry on campus. Probably have buildings where you weren't allowed to carry in a weapon any way. Which would of course spread across campus resulting in carrying a weapon moot anyway.

That's why there shouldn't be any restrictions. Gun free zones are nothing more than sheep pens.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Again, I'm with you. I just find it hard to believe that everyone will have that same self-control if they were allowed to carry 24-7.

The bottom line is that I don't trust people.

Without getting on a tangent, people can't be trusted to pick up dog poop where dogs aren't allowed, people can't be trusted not to smoke in fire zones (and I live in one and see people smoking all the time. At the lookout point in my avatar, there's a huge no smoking sign though when I walked over there on Friday, people were smoking).

If everyone where as responsible as you and Alan (or even my dad, a 30 year gun owner) I'd have no problem. But the reality is that even if an extremely small percentage of people aren't, we could see hundreds of deaths a year, far more than the tragedies of VaTech and the like.

If you don't trust people, that's all the more reason to carry your own gun. I certainly don't trust people. At all. And all I trust the cops to do is zip up my bodybag after somebody has killed me because I wasn't armed and able to (at least attempt to) defend myself at the moment of truth, because I was obeying some bullshit local law that flies in the face of my Constitutional rights. As we already know, the killer won't strike if the cop is there at the time. So if that happens, the cop might find my killer, but it won't make me any less dead. Justice is for survivors and the government; the victim gets dick. And it's just another day at the office to the cop, since he has no personal stake or interest in my life or whether I continue to live it. To me, my personal safety should be my responsibility. And I resent the fact that I can't legally take steps to defend myself by carrying a gun.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by frazod

If you don't trust people, that's all the more reason to carry your own gun. I certainly don't trust people. At all. And all I trust the cops to do is zip up my bodybag after somebody has killed me because I wasn't armed and able to (at least attempt to) defend myself at the moment of truth, because I was obeying some bullshit local law that flies in the face of my Constitutional rights. As we already know, the killer won't strike if the cop is there at the time. So if that happens, the cop might find my killer, but it won't make me any less dead. Justice is for survivors and the government; the victim gets dick. And it's just another day at the office to the cop, since he has no personal stake or interest in my life or whether I continue to live it. To me, my personal safety should be my responsibility. And I resent the fact that I can't legally take steps to defend myself by carrying a gun.

My friend who I've mentioned earlier (he's the LA SWAT head of counter-terrorism) has tried to get me to the SWAT shooting range to teach me how to shoot a gun. While I think it would be good in case of self-defense, the idea of shooting or owning a gun doesn't appeal to me at all (it actually kind of scares me).

Do you suggest that I should take him up on it?

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

My friend who I've mentioned earlier (he's the LA SWAT head of counter-terrorism) has tried to get me to the SWAT shooting range to teach me how to shoot a gun. While I think it would be good in case of self-defense, the idea of shooting or owning a gun doesn't appeal to me at all (it actually kind of scares me).

Do you suggest that I should take him up on it?

Gun ownership isn't for everybody. But if you're a level-headed man, especially with a family to protect, it is something you should think about. Just consider what would happen to your area if a really major quake hit - there wouldn't be any cops around to protect you, and you damn sure won't scare off looters with harsh language.

It wouldn't hurt to at least try it. Any you're certainly not going to get any better instruction than from a SWAT cop - seriously, that sounds like a golden opportunity to learn from the best. I would take advantage of that.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by frazod

Gun ownership isn't for everybody. But if you're a level-headed man, especially with a family to protect, it is something you should think about. Just consider what would happen to your area if a really major quake hit - there wouldn't be any cops around to protect you, and you damn sure won't scare off looters with harsh language.

It wouldn't hurt to at least try it. Any you're certainly not going to get any better instruction than from a SWAT cop - seriously, that sounds like a golden opportunity to learn from the best. I would take advantage of that.

Thanks for the advice. I'll seriously consider it.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Thanks for the advice. I'll seriously consider it.

Remember, when you cut through all the crap, a gun is just a tool. It serves a specific purpose, does a specific thing, and like anything else, it can be used for good or evil. It should be respected, but not feared.

Good luck.

[Jenson71]

Do we really want Dane out there with a gun in his Gucci men's "handbag"? What if he overhears someone bad mouthing Britney and wipes out a block of shoppers on Melrose Ave?

[InChiefsHeaven]

Originally Posted by Jenson71

Do we really want Dane out there with a gun in his Gucci men's "handbag"? What if he overhears someone bad mouthing Britney and wipes out a block of shoppers on Melrose Ave?

Um...the world would be a better place?

[DaKCMan AP]

Originally Posted by Jenson71

UNI and the other regent universities in Iowa voted this school year to arm campus police.

There were a few very vocal people against it, but overall, I'd say it was pretty split.

Personally, I don't mind cops having a gun at all. I'm also for cops having top-notch training in dealing with situations and violence prevention sort of things.

I knew they were going to have to be allowed, even though the teachers' committee was against it. No president would have said no to the guns and then wanted to have faced the heat if a tragedy did strike.

That's kind of surprising that arming campus POLICE is a recent development. UF has its own police department and for as long as I've known they've been armed.

[DenverChief]

Originally Posted by Jenson71

Arming campus police is kind of a recent development - and not just in Iowa. Like I said, it was all the regent universities that just decided this - University of Iowa, Iowa State, and UNI.

WTF?

I know that any university/college that has a "police" department have always been armed....however some colleges/universities (mostly the private sort that cannot by law have a police force) have public safety officers which is a nice term for unarmed security

[Radar Chief]

Originally Posted by frazod

If you don't trust people, that's all the more reason to carry your own gun. I certainly don't trust people. At all. And all I trust the cops to do is zip up my bodybag after somebody has killed me because I wasn't armed and able to (at least attempt to) defend myself at the moment of truth, because I was obeying some bullshit local law that flies in the face of my Constitutional rights. As we already know, the killer won't strike if the cop is there at the time. So if that happens, the cop might find my killer, but it won't make me any less dead. Justice is for survivors and the government; the victim gets dick. And it's just another day at the office to the cop, since he has no personal stake or interest in my life or whether I continue to live it. To me, my personal safety should be my responsibility. And I resent the fact that I can't legally take steps to defend myself by carrying a gun.

Originally Posted by Radar Chief

I carry a gun because I can’t carry a cop.

Originally Posted by frazod

Remember, when you cut through all the crap, a gun is just a tool. It serves a specific purpose, does a specific thing, and like anything else, it can be used for good or evil. It should be respected, but not feared.

Good luck.

Originally Posted by Gunny Hartman

The deadliest weapon in the world is a marine and his rifle. It is your killer instinct which must be harnessed if you expect to survive in combat. Your rifle is only a tool. It is a hard heart that kills.

[alanm]

Originally Posted by frazod

Gun ownership isn't for everybody. But if you're a level-headed man, especially with a family to protect, it is something you should think about. Just consider what would happen to your area if a really major quake hit - there wouldn't be any cops around to protect you, and you damn sure won't scare off looters with harsh language.

It wouldn't hurt to at least try it. Any you're certainly not going to get any better instruction than from a SWAT cop - seriously, that sounds like a golden opportunity to learn from the best. I would take advantage of that.

Living in So Cal like Dane does that's probably the most likely situation one could envision happening.