How Do You Stop a School Shooter? With Your Concealed Weapon, Of Course

About half an hour ago, I experienced one of the most shocking moments of my life: I learned about the organization Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, which has a Facebook membership of 11,000.

Why am I so shocked? Why do I find that this group's existence is so unbelievably unbelievable? Because this organization is convinced that, to prevent school shootings, America needs to legalize concealed weapons on campus.

This is a clear solution that, apparently, goes by a simple logic. "The only way to stop a person with a gun is another person with a gun," Michael Flitcraft, a sophomore at the University of Cincinnati, told USA Today.

But to anybody with half a brain in their head, there is a very blatant problem with this concept: It would legalize the behavior of Stephen Kazmierczak, who walked onto Northern Illinois University campus yesterday with a shotgun stuffed in a guitar case and guns hidden behind his jacket, in order to prevent the behavior of Stephen Kazmierczak, who proceeded to enter a lecture hall and open fire on the class, killing five students.

Surely I'm not the first to point out the extremely obvious twist of logic here. But apparently, some people actually think that this is not a ridiculously stupid idea, and in fact that it is a smart one. Bills to legalize concealed weapons on campus are currently under debate in 12 states, including Washington, Michigan and Kentucky.

Democratic Rep. Robert Damron, who sponsored the Kentucky bill, says that gun-toters should have the same rights at the university as in anywhere else in Kentucky, where they are allowed to keep guns in their cars. Fair enough. But riddle me this, Damron: how will a handgun locked in a car prevent a shooting that takes place inside a lecture hall?

It seems, judging by the general fear people have of someone who is weilding a gun, that this law would cause more harm than good. By the time a student would make it out to the car to get their handgun, after all, it's likely that the police would already have been notified of the emergency, if not already on the scene. So the moment that this maverick student-hero waltzes over to the scene of the crime, pistol in hand, he or she will either get arrested or gunned down.

It should be obvious enough why that would happen. But just in case an S.C.C.C. member happens across this blog entry, I'll explain: Because this person is holding a fucking gun.