My daughter is a third year student at Georgia Tech. In the past year, I can't count how many robberies have been reported on campus. There was even a rape of a student on campus right before a football game.
As the new legislative session approaches, the time has come to fight to change Georgia law to allow licensed Georgia Weapons License holders to exercise their right to carry concealed on campus.
It won't be an easy task. Georgia Tech has a stated policy from 2010 advocating leaving the law where it is. But the arguments they list in this policy, as well as the statistics they quote, are taken right from the Brady Campaign, and they are easily refuted.
Here is the heart of the issue: when people hear that we want to allow concealed carry in campus, they immediately assume we want to allow every college student to carry a gun.
But the law guiding concealed carry on Georgia, and in every state that allows it, limits licenses to those 21 years or older. So, students younger than 21 would not be allowed to carry in any case.
In fact, the majority of those who would be eligible to carry concealed on campus would not be students at all, but faculty and staff? How many of them would be carrying guns? Who knows?
A criminal, like the one who shot up the Virginia Tech campus in 2007, doesn't care about the law. They are are going to break the law in any case, either by robbing someone at gunpoint, or by shooting someone. What does breaking one more law matter to them?
It turns out that the main deterrent to an armed attack on campus, as it is anywhere, is the unknown. The criminal, who doesn't care about breaking gun laws in the commission of other crimes, does care about being shot in the commission of that crime. And since they don't know which of their intended victims or bystanders might be able and willing to fight back, they choose not to attempt the crime at all.
Please join me in supporting Students for Concealed Carry on Campus and Georgia Students for Concealed Carry on Campus.
