Reply #55: Yeah. I don't hold gun control laws to 100% effectiveness. Not the point...

[SteveM]

When I was in college (two universities) there were no "gun-free zones." Now we have them. Please answer this: How does posting a "gun-free zone" sign keep mass murders (and the daily hum-drum of murders, rapes, assaults, etc., on campus) from occurring?

Don't you think the so-called "gun-free zones" are a rather recent phenomenon, prompted perhaps by the wide-spread passage of concealed-carry weapon laws in most states? If this is so, then I would suggest the "gun-free zone" laws were aimed at LAWFUL gun owners (not crims) who have been vetted and trained in gun use. When a law is not aimed at real social problems it fails as a matter of form.

On a related subject, I am not convinced that allowing concealed carry on campus will reduce both the incidents of mass murder or the damage there from. But it is quite possible it might if another incident in a lecture hall of 100 is met by even 2 individuals cranking off shots from old Rugers toward the murderer. Sociopaths do read and watch the news. (You may recall that Dylan Kleburg of Columbine notoriety had his last conversation with his dad about the (then) proposed CCW in Colorado. They both agreed it should be defeated. I rather suspect for different reasons.) In the final analysis, however, the question is about self-defense, an imminently personal and protected right, and not about social policy.

You would agree that if you were in that NIU class room you would have preferred to have a couple of students firing back at the S.O.B., no?