On the fifth anniversary of the heinous attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School a daughter of one of the school’s teachers said that campus carry “creates a dangerous environment” for students and teachers alike.
Sarah Clements said this even though her mother, a second grade teacher at the time of the attack, was in a gun-free zone and scrambling for ways to hide school children while the armed attacker methodically killed his defenseless victims.
Clements told MTV, “Many states right now that have either passed or are considering passing campus carry legislation, which means that college students could very well be allowed to carry a firearm in their backpack or on their body in the classroom, around campus, in academic buildings, etc., which creates a dangerous environment for students and faculty.”
Her suggestion that armed law-abiding citizens create a “dangerous environment” on campus is perplexing, to say the least. After all, Clements, via her mother’s experience, knows firsthand that criminals do not adhere to campus gun bans. Therefore, criminals are armed and pose a threat whether campus carry laws exist or not. The logical solution to this is to be sure law-abiding citizens can be armed to defend themselves.
Secondly, Clements’ assertion overlooks the fact that concealed carry permit holders are demonstrably among the most law-abiding of law-abiding citizens.
On May 27, 2017, Breitbart News reported:
The Crime Prevent Research Center shows that from January 1, 2005, through December 31, 2007, the yearly rate of misdemeanors and felonies by full-time police officers was .102 percent. On the other hand, the yearly rate for Texas’ concealed carry permit holders in the year 2015–the year campus carry was signed into law in that state–was .0102 percent.
The salient point is that concealed carry permit holders were more law-abiding that police during the period of time examined.
The only “dangerous environment” armed law-abiding citizens create is an environment that is dangerous for criminals.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.