Thread: Former Israeli paramilitary turned sociologist decries guns on campus

Guns on campus? Expect tragedy - CNN

here is the author's bio:
Amitai Etzioni - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm all for guns. everywhere. And I'm an active proponent of open-carry, which I believe represents a better deterrancy mechanism than concealed.

But.

The main thing that bothers me is I don't know about AZ or TX, but around here (AL), there is very little in the way of requirements for a CCL as compared to other states. Hailing from the northeast, I had to get at the minimum an NRA basic pistol cert, background checks, etc. done in order to get my original state's CCL. Of course, one of the reasons I still have the usp packed away is that AL won't honor a CT CCL because CT does not honor AL county CCLs - particularly due to the extra training requirements. (And I haven't gotten around to getting an ID card showing residency here in order to apply for the permit here). And of course, those of us in the AL Open Carry group are working to try to get the campuses here to allow carry (even if concealed). I think more "people" will feel better about allowing guns on campus once the "unknown factor" is removed - that is, at least make sure those carrying in class will have the ability to make their shots count and minimize collateral damage. Maybe at least limit ammunition type (frangible/subsonic rounds) unless otherwise passing another marksmanship level or something.

I am not a supporter of carrying on campus, and not a supporter of open carry, period, so I agree with the author of the article. Bad things will happen if students carry guns, and more people will die. When Gabbie Giffords was shot, one armed guy almost shot the wrong person. I definitely don't trust untrained people to handle guns during crises at all. Personally, I don't trust people I don't know to handle guns. In my eyes, I treat them all as criminals. That's just me, though. The answer to these problems is not more violence, it is treating the conditions these people suffer from. In other words, we need tons more spending on mental health and identifying and treating people, not more guns.