Gun control advocates are showing inconclusive results with their policies at best, and at worst, they are indirectly responsible for the deaths of thousands.
Gun-free zones are only effective when every individual is screened before entering. Unless you are at the Super Bowl or a political convention, gun-free zones only invite criminal intent to commit mass murder.
In a large auditorium at LSU or the LSU Student Union, I can’t imagine how many people would die before a police response. The gun-free zones on campuses and in theaters take away the right of law-abiding citizens to protect themselves.
Look at history: The 1999 Columbine High School shooting only lasted one hour, but the police didn’t enter the school until two hours later. Fifteen students died. The school was gun free.
In 2007, a man walked onto the gun-free campus of Virginia Tech and murdered 32 people. Locking the doors to the engineering and sciences building, the perpetrator continued shooting until he killed himself 10 to 12 minutes after entering, right before police arrived.
There were 26 children and faculty members murdered at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. The police did not enter the gun-free zone until 10 minutes after the shootings began.
To a criminal, gun-free zones are nothing more than a turkey shoot. We must rely on the citizens who can use firearms because the police will not respond in time.
College students should be given the option to conceal carry on campus. A psychological check on individuals and cooperation with campus police would ensure the safety of all students.
We can offer elementary and high schools armed protection by giving military veterans
positions to guard the grounds. They would need to pass a psychological evaluation, and it would provide jobs for these members of the community, offering real protection for the children.
If gun-free zones won’t save you, confiscating guns will, right? Confiscating guns in the U.S. would work like it did in Australia. You are more likely to get killed.
Advocates who praise Australia’s gun confiscation law, including our president, enjoy stating statistics like how the average firearm suicide rate after the bill declined by 57 percent and the average firearm homicide rate went down by 42 percent.
Of course, the rates went down. It’s not rocket science to figure out this one. If you look at those numbers, they clearly state the average firearm suicide rate or the firearm homicide rate.
How could these people kill themselves with guns or murder people with guns if the guns were destroyed? The tools of murder are not the issue.
What the advocates of gun control fail to mention is the homicide rate in Australia was higher for five years after the buyback program was completed in 1997. The homicide rate in 2002 alone was 20 percent higher.
Any attempt to follow Australia’s policy in the U.S. would be impossible. Armed resistance would be encountered across the country, and it would end poorly for those implementing and supporting it.
This doesn’t stop gun control advocates from trying to restrict the transfer of firearms. According to the Brady Campaign in 2013, seven states with the strictest gun control laws also have the lowest gun death rate, but this is only a partial truth.
The FBI crime report for 2013 sheds light on the Brady Campaign’s statistics. Only two states with the strictest gun control laws were listed among states with the lowest murder rate. Two states with the fewest gun control laws also made that list.
Hawaii was the only state with the strictest gun control laws to make it among states with the lowest violent crime rate. Ironically, four of the states with the lowest violent crime rate had the fewest gun control laws. If anything, the statistics show you are safer from violent crime in states with fewer gun control laws.
Gun registration is nonsense, but mandatory background checks should be instated given that they do not keep a record of any purchases. Anyone who has a history of psychological issues should be flagged on the database.
That is an idea gun control advocates cannot get through their thick skulls. If people want to kill one another or themselves, they don’t need guns. All it takes is a little jealousy and a rock.
It’s time gun control advocates face the facts: Gun violence isn’t the problem. All violence is.
Garrett Marcel is a 21-year-old petroleum engineering senior from Houma, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter
@Gret419.