Caleb Latas
Staff reporter
clatas@jccc.edu
In 2006 the Kansas Legislature passed the Personal and Family Protection Act, which allowed ordinary citizens to carry a concealed weapon upon completion of a not-so-rigorous application process.
But if that “tough” application process, deterred too many, have no fear! If you’re 21 and want to carry a gun, holstered under your shirt, or in your bag, then you can! Doesn’t matter if you’re a “good” guy, or a “bad” guy, or just a guy (or a girl), if you can physically carry a gun, then by all means you can carry a gun!
Starting, as of July 1, 2017, anyone, and I mean anyone (21 or older), can carry a concealed weapon. No training, no license, no application process. You just conceal your weapon and make sure you have your driver’s license.
And if that’s not enough for you, well congratulations! Now you can carry a gun on campus too! Because if 39 school shootings between 2000-2013 (FBI A Study of Active Shooter Incidents in the United States Between 2000 and 2013 ) isn’t a high enough number to deter members of the state government to keep guns off campuses, we can just wait until it does reach that magic number.
So what is to stop someone from walking onto campus and opening up a hail of bullets against the hundreds of students on campus?
A “good guy” with a gun?
Who are the good guys? Do they wear little silver, shiny, badges that say “Certified Good Guy” or have matching hats?
How do I, as student, know whether the gun in your bag is for protection or murder. How am I to determine if you are going to gun down me and others? How do I know whether to be afraid or not?
I guess I’ll just have to be on edge all of the time. Every morning I’ll put on my little bullet proof vest and helmet before I head out the door.
Hell what if you forgot to put the safety on!
Most of us have grown up now in the post-Columbine age. The age where as elementary students we get to taught how to sit still in the dark corner of the class and not make single sound. We’ve sat there month after month, for the last 12 years at least, as we did drill after drill.
We’ve listened, with goose bumps on our arms and the hair standing tall on the back of our necks, while our teachers say “If for some reason there is an intruder and they do make it into the classroom, throw anything and everything at them.” Run.
The young kids sit there, their hearts race with anxiety and adrenaline dreaming of being the hero that dodges the lead bullets, and tackles the shooter, wrestles the gun away, and gets crowned “hero.”
But look now you can just shoot him. You can take the Glock out of your backpack and shoot him right then, and there. Done. You’re the hero and you didn’t have to do much at all, right?
Between 2000 and 2013 there have been only 5 incidents, out of 160 mass shootings, only a whopping 3.1 percent, in which a “good guy” with a gun (an armed citizen) has stopped a mass shooting. In these incidents, 3 shooters were killed, 1 was wounded, and 1 committed suicide. (FBI)
So where are the good guys with their guns the rest of the 96.9 percent of the time?
Where is the reward for the risk of guns on campus? What difference do they truly make? Is 3.1 percent worth the threat of danger in the bags of students?
From what I have heard from students and faculty, the everyday risk to their safety is not worth the insignificant chance that a good guy with a gun could save them. So do us a favor, leave your guns at home.