Wayne LaPierre on getting rid of Gun Free Zones

Commentary on the problem with Gun Free Zones from Wayne LaPierre's blog, "What They Didn't Tell You Today," available at nranews.com:

Friday, March 07, 2008
Extending the Right to Carry, Part 1

In Virginia, the state legislature recently voted to extend the Right-to-Carry into restaurants that serve alcohol. Frankly, it wasn't a controversial vote. Both chambers passed the bill easily, with very little opposition. And that's how it should be. Virginians have been exercising their Right to Carry for years now, and fears of "blood in the streets" have, of course, not come true.

So why is there such controversy over extending the Right-to-Carry onto school campuses? The fact of the matter is, we're not changing the requirements of who can exercise their Right to Carry. We're merely expanding where RTC holders can exercise that right.

There are millions of RTC holders in this country. You drive next to them, you shop with them, you see them every day. They're your dentist or your pastor, your boss or your star employee. They're everywhere. And the reason you may not know that is because they're not the problem.

They're already carrying in your church, the grocery store, and the public library. They're with you at your favorite restaurant or your local bookstore. And the reason you never think about it is because they're not the problem.

The problem is that there is evil in this world, people who want to prey on the innocent and defenseless.

The gun-control crowd has also flamed the fears with their embarrassingly weak arguments against extending the Right to Carry. They have played on emotion at the expense of logic and reason. And in my next blog, I'll take their arguments apart one by one. The discussion over extending Right-to-Carry is too important, and knee-jerk calls for more gun control serve no purpose but to avoid the issue.
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Monday, March 10, 2008
Extending the Right to Carry, Part 2

In my last blog, I talked about the importance of having a real discussion on the issue of Right-to-Carry on campuses across this country. Instead of having that honest debate, people like Paul Helmke and Peter Hamm of the Brady Campaign seem intent on talking about anything but the real issue.

They accuse groups like Students for Concealed Carry on Campus of being "funded by the gun industry," instead of simply recognizing that this is an issue that is important to tens of thousands of students and faculty. And their arguments against Right-to-Carry on campus are just straw men that collapse with ease.

They say that allowing Right-to-Carry on college campuses would lead to alcohol-fueled bloodshed. But they ignore the fact that there are many young adults who are already gun owners and Right-to-Carry holders across the country. They're serving in our military, they're serving as law enforcement officers, and yes, there are many who are just responsible gun owners. These young men and women are already gun owners of legal drinking age, and they're not causing mayhem. There's simply no reason to believe that extending Right-to-Carry to campuses would cause these responsible adults to act irresponsibly.

The gun-control crowd also likes to say that when a madman is shooting into a crowd of students and faculty, the presence of an armed citizen would actually make things worse, not better. This is a ridiculous argument. At Trolley Square Mall, at New Life Church, at Appalachian Law School, and on and on, the presence of gun owners—whether they were off-duty officers, volunteer security guards, or simply students—didn't lead to more violence, but to less.

That's because these Instant Responders can always do what First Responders can never do: Immediately stop attacks on innocent people.

Finally, the Brady Campaign and others say they don't want our schools to look like prisons. With Right-to-Carry, they wouldn't. They would look just like our restaurants, our grocery stores, our bookstores, and every other place that people lawfully exercise their Right to Carry. And I'd much rather our campuses look like that than continuing to look like slaughterhouses.
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