Gun-Free Zones may not be Safe for Criminals Anymore
By Glen Wunderlich
Good intentions of ideologues have given us Gun-Free Zones (GFZs). Unfortunately, their unintended consequences have given us mass murders. We all know the history: Luby’s Cafeteria in Texas, post offices, schools, an unarmed army base, and even a country such as Norway all have fought reality with gun-control laws and have demonstrated the folly of extreme, liberal thinking. The next tragedy is most likely brewing in some demented soul’s brain and calling 911 won’t prevent the inevitable. Neither will any GFZ. And, Texas Congressman and GOP presidential hopeful, Ron Paul, is tired of waiting for more proof that weapons of mass imagination have failed and has proposed a bill that would allow teachers to become armed.
H.R. 2613, the Citizens Protection Act of 2011, would repeal the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 and remove all federally created criminal safety zones. Congressman Paul has been called an extremist. So be it. So are the people perpetrating these horrific crimes. But in reality, it was extremists who opened the door to the current insanity – thinking that laws will stop a madman.
We already know that GFZs are tragic failures. Case after case, it’s all out there. But, could a licensed-to-carry individual really make a difference? Yes, it already has.
Not long ago at Pearl High School in Mississippi an assistant principal halted a Columbine copycat from finishing his massacre after he had already killed two and wounded others.
In another example, two law students at Virginia Tech stopped another demented killer when they retrieved their legally owned firearm. Case closed.
As usual, on the other side of the issue is the Brady Campaign, who thinks arming teachers is a bad idea. Why, we could have an accident. For any of their ilk, I have an offer: I’ll pay for the lawn sign at their home that reads, “We have no guns inside.” Heck, I’ll even install it.
Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, said that despite the intentions of the School Zones Act, it has actually created “target-rich, no-risk environments for monsters who have no fear of encountering an armed teacher or administrator, or a legally armed private citizen who might happen to be in the building. This sort of thing didn’t happen before the advent of gun-free school zone laws. You never saw such an outrage in the days when high schools typically had rifle teams, and — particularly in the West — where it was common in the fall to find both teachers and students with hunting rifles or shotguns locked in their cars.” Today, even having guns locked in cases inside of locked vehicles is illegal on or near school grounds.
So, instead of providing an opportunity for a law-abiding citizen to stop mayhem with a legal gun, we have unarmed them. And, the results speak volumes.
The question is not whether our current 20,000 or so gun laws are effective in stopping criminals, or if just one more gun-control law will do the trick; it’s whether these same laws are actually contributing to the problems we face.
