In the wake of the Connecticut school shooting tragedy, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder says he’s not sure if he plans to sign or veto a bill allowing gun owners to carry concealed weapons into presently off-limits venues like stadiums, schools, churches, and bars.
I am not a gun owner, but I am an unabashed gun rights supporter. Guns are legitimate tools for hunting and personal protection and, as gun advocates often note, the vast majority of gun owners are responsible with their firearms. Michigan’s current concealed carry law works. Those who wish to carry do so, and without causing problems for those of us who do not carry. And it is a law that’s best left alone.
Governor Snyder is probably trying to decide if he’s earned enough political capital on the right to veto this bill or if CCW expansion will create more and better jobs--that is to say, stave off a 2014 primary challenge. What he should do is heed Johnny Cash’s advice: Leave the guns at home.
I don’t know if arming teachers could have stopped or mitigated Friday’s tragedy. For what it is worth, David Wiegel interviewed a pro-Second Amendment firearms trainer after the Aurora, CO shooting who explained it would have been awfully difficult for a gun owner to thwart that attack. In real life, fire fights aren’t as neat and clean as the Lethal Weapon movies might lead one to believe.
What I do know is that Friday was a horrific anomaly. Mass shooting tragedies are very rare. The reality, once you turn off Nancy Grace’s fear porn, is that our schools and public places are very safe. As the libertarian publication Reason points out, school violence is dramatically down from just a couple decades ago. Of course, 20 years ago gunplay was perceived as a problem only in predominantly African-American urban school, it was easier for a lot of people to ignore.
The truth is every day millions of Americans go to school or the local tavern or the movie theater or hockey arena and return home safely without incident. There is no great crime threat that justifies changing the law. During the 2009-10 school year, there were just 33 homicide victims at schools. On average, 2000 high school students are killed in car crashes every year.
The data also tells us that between 1992 and 2010 there have just been two accidental firearm-related deaths at schools nationwide. Two. Over a nearly twenty-year period. It’s hard to imagine that number remaining so low if guns become commonplace in schools.
It’s also hard to imagine a reality where carrying guns in bars or sporting arenas stops more violence than it creates. Anyone who's witnessed some boozy fisticuffs at a Lions game knows that introducing guns into that environment will only make things more dangerous. Every night in every town across this land, some jackass at a bar orders one too many and picks a fight with another equally inebriated patron. We’re all better off because those brawls are settled with fists or a pool cue than bullets.
Anyone who believes otherwise, frankly, is too stupid to be handling a gun anyway.
There is no virtually gun control law that could stop a crazed psychopath from killing people if he’s so determined (better mental health care however…) but at the same time Johnny Cash was right, don’t take your guns to town.
The risks created by introducing guns into these presently off-limits environments far outweigh the supposed benefit that, in the event of an incident as rare as being struck by lightning, someone may have a slim chance of preventing an unspeakable tragedy.
