Thread: Guns on school campuses?

Originally Posted by Anonymous D

Heres another question I want to ask some of you. Do you think that someone who is planning a school shooting would rethink if they knew other people might also be carrying guns to defend themselves?

And do you think "gun free zones" such as schools and churches make them more likely to be a target?

1. I can't say with any certainty, but I doubt it. It seems like most of these would be shooters are suicidal or at least have a fatalistic mindset anyways, so I doubt they would be deterred. Besides, at my high school, there would have been someone shooting back. We had a police detachment in the school at all times consisting of two police officers.

2. No, not less likely either, but not more likely. I mean, you see a sign that says "drug free zone" does that make you want to go smoke pot there? Probably not, but at the same time it probably wouldn't deter you if you really wanted to either.

Originally Posted by Shinysides

1. I can't say with any certainty, but I doubt it. It seems like most of these would be shooters are suicidal or at least have a fatalistic mindset anyways, so I doubt they would be deterred. Besides, at my high school, there would have been someone shooting back. We had a police detachment in the school at all times consisting of two police officers.

I actually agree with this; as I said earlier, the point of allowing CCW in schools is intervention, not deterrence. I think you are right, anyone who plans to carry out a school shooting is probably not the type of person who is going to make rational self-preservation decisions.

On the topic of cops at schools, that's great where it's feasible, but if it was universally feasible, the whole school shooting thing wouldn't really even be an issue. Not every locality has a large enough police department to keep an officer at every school in the county/city at all times. My high school always had a cop at it too, but our county's police department was large and well-funded and could spare the manpower. That's not the case everywhere in the country.

Originally Posted by Shinysides

2. No, not less likely either, but not more likely. I mean, you see a sign that says "drug free zone" does that make you want to go smoke pot there? Probably not, but at the same time it probably wouldn't deter you if you really wanted to either.

This is a fundamentally flawed analogy, because when you want to smoke pot you don't seek out a place where no-one else will have pot; but when you want to murder people, there IS a good reason to seek out a place where no-one else has a gun and thus no-one can defend themselves against you or stop you. The gun-free school zones are basically big advertisements saying "Guaranteed Defenseless Victims Here!", and that's particularly attractive to people who have decided that they want to kill as many people as possible.

Originally Posted by Syme

This is a fundamentally flawed analogy, because when you want to smoke pot you don't seek out a place where no-one else will have pot; but when you want to murder people, there IS a good reason to seek out a place where no-one else has a gun and thus no-one can defend themselves against you or stop you. The gun-free school zones are basically big advertisements saying "Guaranteed Defenseless Victims Here!", and that's particularly attractive to people who have decided that they want to kill as many people as possible.

Okay, that's a good point.