During the week of October 22-26, 2007, college students throughout America, organized under the banner of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, will attend classes wearing empty holsters, in protest of state laws and campus policies that stack the odds in favor of armed killers by disarming law abiding citizens licensed to carry concealed handguns virtually everywhere else.
In 39 U.S. states, thousands of collegiate students and faculty-age 21and above-are licensed to carry concealed handguns throughout their day-to-day lives. And they do so without incident. However, despite the absence of any compelling evidence that these licensed individuals would pose any more threat to college campuses than they currently do to office buildings, shopping malls, movie theaters, grocery stores,banks, etc., they are prohibited, either by state law or school policy, from carrying their firearms onto most college campuses.
On April 16, 2007, twenty-seven students and five faculty members at Virginia Tech lost their lives to a madman who possessed one distinct advantage over his victims-He wasn't concerned with following the rules. Undeterred by Virginia Tech's status as a "gun free zone,"this mentally unstable individual carried two handguns onto the university campus and indiscriminately opened fire.
In the last twenty years, the vast majority of the mass shootings in America-from the Texas Luby's massacre to the Columbine High School massacre-have happened in "gun free zones." Labeling an area "gun free" may make some people feel safer, but as the shootings at Virginia Tech taught us, feeling safe and being safe are not the same thing.
For over a year, state law in Utah has allowed licensed individuals to carry concealed handguns on college campuses. This has yet to result in a single act of violence. Numerous studies* by independent researchers and state agencies show that license holders are five times less likely than non-license holders to be arrested for violent crimes. Clearly, license holders pose little threat to college campuses.
There is a wide discrepancy between the intent of campus gun bans and the actual consequences of such bans. It is this discrepancy to which the students of SCCC hope their Empty Holster Protest will draw attention. While opponents may argue that guns have no place in institutions of higher learning, SCCC contends that it is the threat of uncontested, execution-style massacre that has no place in America's colleges. The students of the Empty Holster Protest respectfully ask that steps be taken to take the advantage away from those who seek to harm the innocent.
For more information visit
http://www.concealedcampus.com/
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