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Originally Posted by AOII Angel
Agreed. We already have the Risk Management Forum peppered with stories of tragic deaths and stupid stunts involving guns in Greek housing. I dread the day when guns are more numerous in student housing. Hormones, alcohol, incompletely matured brains and guns can be a deadly mix.
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I've been going back and forth on this in my head, and this is where I'm ending up I think. That and the fact I'm not convinced that adding more guns to the Virginia Tech situation would have solved anything. As for police not protecting people in Virginia Tech type situations, that's not what police DO. They respond and react, there's no way other than living under martial law to have police presence 24/7 and most people don't want that. It's a trade off - such disturbing massacres are incredibly rare, and in exchange for accepting that risk we don't walk down corridors/streets/cities with police at every possible checkpoint.
I think the belief that citizens who had been carrying concealed weapons would have 'helped' in VTech or similar situations is rooted on the misguided, but incredibly common belief that "if I had been there, I would have done ..." Where "..." is typically something best left to people in movies and in reality you would have been running, screaming, hiding, or bleeding. The odds that you, or anyone, would have whipped out a gun, and shot that guy, hitting and disabling him and rendering him incapable of returning fire, are slim to none. More likely is that he would see 'you' and your gun, and shoot you, since his gun(s) is/are already drawn, and pointed in your general direction. Additionally when the police DO come, they are now dealing with 'multiple shooters' and 'you' innocent not-so-defenseless civilian that you are could very well end up shot yourself. Just as people were saying that the laws in Texas protect people who shoot people in self defense, the police are protected from this as well.
I think people fantasize that if it had been them in a hostage situation at a bank or restaurant, or if it had been them walking down the street witnessing someone get mugged that they would have been able to DO something. Whether they are armed or not. However, most bystanders just won't do anything, it's a fact of human psychology and sociology even if it's a disturbing one. And in a hostage situation it is actually recommended that you NOT play John McClane for rather obvious reasons. You are likely to get everyone killed or injured rather than save the day. When they train civilians to deal with a hostage situation there's a reason they don't say "find whatever weapon you have and fight back."
Overall, college campuses are areas where I feel like guns are not particularly necessary. You're free to have one off campus based on the laws of your locale. But the "only outlaws will have guns" line is a sidenote. Gun free campuses would not stop a Vtech like massacre, obviously. However nothing would stop that other than full campus lockdown with police or even military presence everywhere. And the perpetrators of such events aren't thinking "Goooooood, they're defenseless because they don't have guns" but instead are generally mentally unstable and could be thinking anything from "Gooooood, now I'll kill the queen of France" to "I'll show them, I'll show them all." But keeping guns off campuses does remove the risks of accidents, the risks of intoxicated idiocy with weapons, the risks of domestic gun violence, and so on.