VA Tech tragedy could have been stopped sooner if students and faculty had been allowed to defend themselves.

This post is in response to VA Tech tragedy felt in Durham.
All of the attempted campus massacres in recent history that have ended abruptly were stopped by armed citizens, not the police or campus security. In 2002, a mad gunman started shooting at the Appalachian School of Law. Two students ran to their cars as soon as they heard the shooting start. They each retrieved their personal handguns from their cars, and ran back to campus. By the time they got to where the shooter was, he had killed three people. When the shooter saw that there were two men pointing guns at him, he dropped his gun, gave up, and was subsequently tackled by students. Two days before the shooting at VA Tech, there was a shooting in Manchester NH, but the results in Manchester were much different. A thug who had just been kicked out of the Uptown Tavern started shooting at the bouncer and into the bar. Fortunately a customer was carrying a concealed handgun and fired back at the thug, disabling him before he could actually hit anyone. Like the events of September 11th, 2001, these events show that government cannot protect us. No matter how many laws we pass, no matter how many police or federal agents we put on the streets, a determined individual or group still can cause great harm. Perhaps the only good that can come from these terrible killings is a reinforced understanding that we as individuals are responsible for our safety and the safety of our families.
If, like at the Appalachian School of Law, students, faculty & staff had been allowed to carry concealed firearms, it would have likely ended much sooner with fewer deaths. Last year, the NH state police issued 8,996 concealed handgun licenses to non-residents who already had a similar license or permit in their own state. The state doesn’t record how many resident licenses have been issued, but I’ve heard estimates that between 10 to 25% of NH residents age 21 and over have concealed handgun licenses. When you go off campus, there are many honest, law abiding citizens who are carrying concealed handguns and doing normal everyday things like shop, go to restaurants or bars, spend time out with their families, and work. And yet, despite the fact that there are many people out there who are carrying firearms in NH, this state consistently has one of the two lowest violent crime rates in the country. I’ll bet you’re thinking “Which state shares that title with NH?” That state is Vermont, where anyone who is not a convicted felon may carry concealed firearms, no license required. When you look to see where crime rates are the highest, you will see that it is the places with the strictest gun control laws. There is a reason you never see massacres at gun shows or NRA conventions, while most massacres happen in “gun free zones”. If you watched the video that was released by the news stations, you probably saw strong, fully certified police officers with body armor on standing behind trees, waiting for the shooter to finish his killing spree and kill himself. NH not only has no laws prohibiting firearms on university and college campuses, but it actually has laws that prohibit anyone except the legislature from making laws, regulations, rules, or policies that restrict the carrying of firearms and ammunition anywhere in the state, except that private property owners may prohibit the carrying of firearms on their own property. UNH and the other USNH campuses in NH were created by and are funded by the legislature of this state, and are prohibited from making policies restricting the keeping and bearing of arms. Unfortunately, the Board of Trustees chose to violate the law and write a policy against the possession of firearms on campus anyway. While the massacre at VA Tech is extremely unfortunate, a significant portion of the blame should be placed on the heads of administrators there who pushed for prohibitions on the carrying of firearms on campus because they apparently were too dumb to realize that a campus policy would not stop a criminal from violating it and killing others like shooting fish in a barrel, with nobody to stop him. The only way to effectively stop people from committing such heinous acts is to allow law abiding citizens to carry concealed handguns for their own defense. If the administration at UNH really wants to make the campus safer, they should start by removing the policy that prohibits firearms on campus without the chief of police’s permission. I don’t think he gives permission to anyone anyway. Then a good notification system should be set up to alert students, faculty & staff in the event of an emergency. Of course I’m sure there must be a system already in place so that the administration can send emails out to everyone with a UNH email address to alert those who are checking their emails. I would suggest setting up a system where people who live, work, or study on campus could register their AIM accounts and cell phones so that they would get instant messaged and/ or text messaged in the event of an emergency. I would also suggest setting up a system that could call all campus land line phones with a pre-recorded call so that all buildings can be notified quickly of an emergency and get pertinent instructions.

In Defense of Liberty,

Timothy A. Logsdon
NRA Certified Pistol Instructor
6 Year Veteran of the US Army - honorably discharged
Qualified as Expert Marksman by US Army
Former Security Specialist
Received training in responding to terrorist threats by Dept. of Homeland Security instructor
Managed security for a military base
Received first pistol permit at the age of 18
No criminal record

Denied permission to carry a concealed handgun on campus by Chief Halias

Ron Paul: More Guns Will Deter Shootings
Huckabee Says Concealed Handgun Might Have Stopped Virginia Tech Massacre
Fred Thompson on concealed carry
When mass killers meet armed resistance