As news reports announced 31-year-old Florida State University alumnus Myron May drew a handgun and opened fire “in or near” the FSU library on November 20, one aspect of the story was conspicuously missing–namely, that FSU President John Thrasher played a key role in defeating a bill to allow students with concealed carry permits to carry guns on campus for self-defense.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, the legislation came up in 2011, while Thrasher was one of the “most powerful members of the state senate.” But instead of supporting the right to defend one’s life in a campus setting, then-senator John Thrasher (R-St. Augustine) thwarted the measure.
Thrasher joined with others in pointing to a gun-related tragedy that occurred at “a private apartment complex built on property owned by FSU.” Because the apartments were on campus property, there were questions of whether laws had been violated in simply bringing the gun to the complex to begin with.
But the bigger lesson, that Thrasher missed, is that gun bans do not stop criminals. Laws against bringing a gun into an apartment complex on campus didn’t work, and the ban on guns on campus properly defined certainly failed to deter Myron May on November 20.
It’s time to tear down that gun free zone, President Thrasher. It’s time to let students who have concealed carry licenses carry their guns with them in a concealed manner for self-defense.
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