Florida Professor: Faculty, Staff ‘Endangered’ by Allowing Students to be Armed for Self-Defense

University of Florida associate professor Michelle Campos generally believes more guns equal more crime and specifically believes allowing law-abiding students to be armed for self-defense will “endanger” faculty and staff.

Campos did not point to any examples of where faculty and staff have been endangered in the eight states that currently have campus carry, but she said it would happen “without a doubt” if campus carry passes in Florida.

Writing in The Gainesville Sun, Campos also described campus carry as “dangerous” because it would allow Floridians with concealed carry permits to carry their guns for self-defense in unsecured portions of airports. In other words, the bill would allow citizens to shoot attackers instead of being forced to run, scream, try to hide, or simply be shot and killed, as they were during the January 6 attack on Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International.

Five unarmed citizens were shot to death in the Ft. Lauderdale attack. Does that not make the point that being defenseless is dangerous?

But Campos continued and employed the left’s push of preserving gun control for the sake of the children.  She claimed that “on average” seven “children and teens” are killed every day with a firearm. She did not point out that the label “teen” covered individuals who are of age to be in a gang and that by adding their deaths to the deaths of “children” numbers gets inflated.

When it comes to actual children–individuals 10 and under–Centers for Disease Control and Prevention numbers for 2010 showed that children were far more likely to accidentally die in fire or water than via a firearm.

CDC showed children were seven times more likely to accidentally burn to death than to die in an accidental firearm-related death and were 16 times more likely to drown than to die an accidental firearm-related death.

It is interesting to note how Campos–and other opponents of arming law-abiding students for self-defense–strain to find something that could go wrong if campus carry were implemented but never talk about the heinous crimes regularly committed on campuses that are gun-free.

For example, why doesn’t Campos talk about what happened on the Virginia Tech campus on April 16, 2007? The campus was gun-free, just like she wants University of Florida’s campus to be, and 32 unarmed people were shot to death by an attacker who knew no one could fight back. Why doesn’t Campos talk about what happened on the Umpqua Community College on October 1, 2015? That campus was gun-free, just like she wants University of Florida’s campus to be, and nine unarmed people were shot to death by an attacker who knew no one could fight back.

And if Campos wants to highlight the plight of children in framing her opposition to campus carry, why doesn’t she discuss what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary on December 14, 2012? After all, that school was gun-free, just like she wants University of Florida’s campus to be, and 26 innocents–including 20 children–were shot and killed in cold blood by an attacker who knew no one could fight back.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com