Eric Pollitt
Contributing Writer
Crime on VCU’s campus has become a regular occurrence, even with the highest number of campus police officers in Virginia. The victims of crimes are usually women or smaller men, but mostly women. Whenever the media and academia calls for a national conversation about guns, it is usually a discussion between the left and far left. What the media never tells you about is their security team inside the building is armed with guns. How ironic it is that the media isn’t operating in a gun free zone.
Media ignorance about guns is astounding and frankly bigoted. According to a Media Research Center report in 2013, ABC, CBS, and NBC quickly pushed for more gun control legislation that ignored the 2nd amendment after Sandy Hook. MRC analysts reviewed all 216 gun policy stories on the Big Three networks’ evening and morning programs starting from the evening of the Sandy Hook shooting, till January 17, 2013 after President Obama’s gun control speech. Stories advocating more gun control outnumbered stories opposing gun control by 99 to 12, or a ratio of 8 to 1.Anti-gun soundbites were aired almost twice as frequently than pro-gun ones (228 to 134). Gun control advocates appeared as guests on 26 occasions, compared to 7 times for gun rights advocates.
The Richmond Times Dispatch reported in 2013 that gun sales have increased 100 percent in Virginia from 2006 till 2012, while gun crime has dropped 28 percent over that period of time. According to the Washington Times, Great Britain’s handgun ban in January 1997 resulted in a 340 percent increase in the number of deaths and injuries from 1998 to 2005. Rapes, robberies, and assaults also soared during Britain’s handgun ban.
VCU like most universities goes along with the assumption that a gun free zone will deter criminals and will have a lower crime rate than if a concealed carry policy is welcomed. A no guns allowed sign might as well say: Criminals, students are unarmed with their only defense being a phone. Mass shooting incidents such as: VT, Sandy Hook Elementary, West Gate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, and Aurora Colorado happened in gun free zones.
In Florida where the second most concealed carry permits are issued in the country, out of 2.64 million people who conceal carry only 168 have had their permits revoked after issued for firearms violation, according to Crime Prevention Research Center. By percentages this is 0.006% of permit holders, and an annual rate of 0.0002 %. From January 2008 through May 2014, just 4 permits have been revoked after an annual average distribution of 875,000 permits, according to the study.
The National Review reported in January 2014, at Clackamas Town Center Mall in Portland, Oregon, a shooter opened fire in the crowded shopping center. He initially killing two people. Nick Meli, a concealed-permit holder, stopped the shooter simply by pointing his gun at him, preventing another mass shooting. The national media more or less ignored the event, instead of praising this citizen’s bravery.
On July 19, 2014, VCU sent out a crime alert email about an off campus armed robbery. In the email it gave a list of helpful tips: if you find yourself in a similar situation do not resist, do not make any sudden or unexpected movements, and never try to apprehend the criminal yourself wait for police. These campus tips do nothing but help encourage a culture of victimhood, instead taking measures to stop crimes before they happen. Similar tips for victims were found on pamphlets at another left wing group’s encampment Occupy Baltimore. Victims were told to handle matters internally instead of reporting to authorities, according to a 2011 New York Post report.
Michael Bloomberg’s most recent anti-gun ad proves why women need concealed carry handguns more than men. A man breaks a restraining order, kidnaps a woman’s baby, then pulls a gun on the woman. The ad proves the point of my pro-gun argument, that no matter what the law says an irrational deranged person (in this case her ex-husband) will find a way to obtain a gun even if it’s illegal and commit a crime. In order to stop these criminals law abiding citizens need guns. Instead anti-gun supporters want law abiding citizens to use a phone and wait-time as their best options of defense.
If gun safety, handgun training, and concealed carry permits for women were pushed as hard as women’s studies and feminism on campus, crime against women would drop within the first year policy back guaranteed. The passage of 2004 S.B. 251 in Utah allowed for concealed carry on all of Utah’s campuses. According to Amanda Adams’s Virginia Policy Review Study, none of Utah’s 18 colleges have reported a single incident of gun violence, including threats or suicides or gun theft. Isn’t it a woman’s right to choose whether or not to arm herself, when women are more likely to be victims than men?
All universities should offer firearms safety courses and the chance to obtain a concealed carry permit for all students. VCU’s Rape Aggression Defense training classes should be mandated to teach women handgun training and safety for protection purposes.
Not just VCU, but all universities should allow those who legally have a concealed carry permit and handgun conceal carry on campus. For those who are uncomfortable using a firearm, a school run volunteer buddy system where students are paired up with someone who is school certified trained with a firearm walks another student home. As stated above, the biggest concern for students is not while on campus but their vulnerability in between leaving campus and arriving home. The more law abiding citizens there are with guns the more deterred criminals will be from coming to VCU to commit crimes; it is always better to have the gun and not need it, than to need it and not have it.