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Sam:

I am only making the point that you did not understand Texas law, hence your remarks about teenagers being armed on campus. A "Gun Free Zone" disarms all people who obey the law, though not, obviously, a would-be murderer. Al this law will do is ensure that a 21 year old student has the same rights as any other 21 year old Texan. That being so, campuses will no longer be "Gun Free Zones", which should answer your question. If this leads to a shooting epidemic then you will be proved right, but, as I said, I doubt it.

Art and Literature in Texas.

Art is the guy who lives on the corner and literature is what the National Rifle Association puts through the letterbox.

[quote]I am only making the point that you did not understand Texas law,[/quote]

But Texas law is irrelevant to my points. Why are you so worried about the over-21s on college campuses but willing to send under-21s in dangerous 'gun-free zones'?

For the 3rd time: I don't care about Texas laws specifically. I'm taking your logic and asking why you think protecting over-21s is more important than under-21s. Please answer, cheers.

Remember this whacko...

[img]http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/arc ... 31641c.jpg[/img]

Nothing would have stopped him killing, because he shot himself afterwards and obviously planned to as well, so he could have taken out at least six people before anyone got to him, and frankly...what good would it have done?

This is a quote from Jeff Wentworth, a Republican state senator.?It?s strictly a matter of self-defence,? he said, ?I don?t ever want to see repeated on a Texas college campus what happened at Virginia Tech.? ?Some deranged, suicidal madman goes into a building and is able to pick off totally defenceless kids like sitting ducks.?

Bad Idea Jeff. I bet 'Jeff's got a few big 'weapon's at home eh...

Would make a hell of a lot more sense to have security guards patrolling campus but of course the fools who run these instititutions were playing monopoly with their allocated funds and got burned in the GFC so the state has to come up with this hair brained CHEAP quick fix

On the the plus side for guns on campus

If memory serves me correctly one of the campus massacres was stopped because a student had a gun in their locker

On the downside

1 in 5 of us will experience mental illness in our lifetime so its not hard to see how allowing seemingly sane 21+ year olds to arm themselves could escalate far past the initial reason for self defence

Sam:

In Texas, people over 21 can get a permit to carry a concealed pistol. All this law does is to ensure that students over 21 are not denied their rights. In that case, the campus is no more a "gun free zone" than any other place in Texas, and I think that will tend to enhance the safety of all the students there, both under and over 21. I feel that the whole concept of a "gun free zone" is flawed, as it merely ensures that a nutter will have a campus full of unarmed targets. That will no longer be the case in Texas.

"I feel that the whole concept of a "gun free zone" is flawed, as it merely ensures that a nutter will have a campus full of unarmed targets. That will no longer be the case in Texas."

This argument that allowing more people to carry guns makes people safer because it gives a level playing field, armourywise, seems a tad flawed to me.

I suppose you could use the same argument in the UK. Let all under sixteens carry a knife around with them, because some nutter might be out there who has a knife.

Because some nutter in Cumbria goes off on a rampage, allow everyone in Cumbria to buy a gun etc etc.

Doesn't seem a recipe for a reduced crime rate to me.

Cheers
D

Well only time will tell if any nutter tries his luck on a Texas campus. As it happens, I believe we all have a right to self defence, and the concept of the "offensive weapon" introduced in the risibly entitled Prevention of Crime Act 1953 has hardly succeeded in preventing crime has it?

"I believe we all have a right to self defence, and the concept of the "offensive weapon" introduced in the risibly entitled Prevention of Crime Act 1953 has hardly succeeded in preventing crime has it?"

I don't see gun law in America having been such a success in terms of preventing crime that Britain should attempt to emulate it, do you?.

CHeers
D

There is not much point in comparing the USA to Britain. The USA is a diverse, continent sized country, very different to our small, densely populated island. You might better compare the USA to Europe, where gun ownership varies wildly from about 1% in Britain to near universal in Switzerland, just as in the USA some states have fierce gun control, others don't.

You may be interested to know that until a secret change in Home Office policy in 1968, it was quite possible to obtain a certificate to own a pistol for reasons of self defence, and quite a few people like judges, bankers and jewellers did just that, and to this day in Northern Ireland about 9,000 permits for self defence pistols are on issue, so it is not such an alien concept in Britain as you might suppose.