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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT:
Students for Concealed Carry on Campus
Katie Kasprzak – Director of Public Relations
Katie.Kasprzak@concealedcampus.org
http://www.ConcealedCampus.com
STUDENTS FOR CONCEALED CARRY ON CAMPUS (SCCC) ENDORSES LOUISIANA HB 199
The national college-based organization Students for Concealed Carry on Campus (SCCC) announced today that Louisiana House Bill 199 has the organization’s full support. SCCC also denounced the misleading theatrics, outrageous statements and manipulative tactics utilized by some of the bill’s opponents. If passed, HB 199 would authorize concealed handgun permit holders—the same trained, licensed adults (age twenty-one and above) currently authorized to carry concealed handguns in most other unsecured locations throughout the state of Louisiana—to carry concealed handguns on the campuses of Louisiana colleges.
One of the most vocal opponents of this bill, authored by Louisiana State Representative and former Plaquemines Parish Sheriff Ernest Wooton, is former gang leader and current Stop the Killing, Inc., president Arthur “Silky Slim” Reed. Mr. Reed, apparently unclear on the difference between middle school and college, protested HB 199 on Monday, May 12, by filling the House chamber with early- and pre-teen children wearing “Stop the killing” and “Keep guns off our campuses” t-shirts. Apparently sharing Mr. Reed’s confusion, Representative Barbara Norton of Shreveport proclaimed, “Let's kill the bill. Let's not kill the children.”
Though Rep. Norton’s talk of killing children and Mr. Reed’s befuddling statement that the state, “should not allow anyone to sit back and socially engineer killing,” conjure up shocking images, their arguments hit a brick wall when faced with the facts. Every college campus in the state of Louisiana is surrounded by grocery stores, shopping malls, movie theaters, banks and fast food restaurants where concealed handgun permit holders are legally authorized to carry concealed handguns; yet, none of those locations have seen rampant gun violence or other problems caused by CHP holders. In fact, of the 27,422 concealed handgun permits issued by the Louisiana State Police since 1996, only 25 have been revoked for felony offenses. According to the Louisiana State Police, there was not a single documented death or accident involving a concealed handgun permit holder in all of 2007.
Louisiana’s experience with “concealed carry” is not unique. Over the last twenty-one years, the number of states with liberal concealed carry laws has increased from nine to forty. Of the thirty-one states that have liberalized their concealed carry laws—making concealed carry more accessible to the general public—during that time, none have seen a resulting increase in gun crime. All thirty-one have seen their overall crime rates decline at a rate equal to or greater than the national average.
Those who claim that college campuses are “special” or “different” than surrounding areas would do well to look at the eleven U.S. colleges (all nine public colleges in the state of Utah, Colorado State University, and Blue Ridge Community College in Weyers Cave, VA) that currently allow concealed carry on campus. After allowing concealed carry on campus for a combined total of seventy-two semesters, not one of those schools has seen a single resulting incident of gun violence (including threats and suicides), a single gun accident, or a single gun theft.
Much of the success of concealed carry can be attributed to the screening and training processes in place. In Louisiana, as in most states, only adults—age twenty-one and above—who attend a state mandated training course, pass both a written and a shooting test, and undergo extensive state and federal fingerprint and background checks can obtain a concealed handgun permit. Numerous studies* have concluded that concealed handgun permit holders are five times less likely than non-permit holders to commit violent crimes (less likely than even police officers in some states).
Unable to erode HB 199’s support with fact-based evidence, some opponents have suggested that its passage might threaten the heart and soul of the South—football. Opponents have persuaded LSU head football coach Les Miles and the rest of the LSU coaching staff that the presence of concealed carry on campus might jeopardize recruiting by making the parents of prospective recruits nervous. This argument not only ignores the fact that five NCAA Division I schools already allow concealed carry on campus and the fact that coaches cannot currently guarantee parents that student athletes won’t wander into the perilous “gun zones” beyond the sidewalk borders of campus, it also infers that parents should be more concerned with trained, licensed, carefully screened adults who want to LEGALLY carry guns on campus than with the criminals who might already be carrying guns on campus ILLEGALLY. Until LSU installs metal detectors and X-ray machines at every entrance and begins screening all 35,000 students and faculty members on a daily basis, no coach can guarantee parents a gun free campus.
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. Every year, students across the country find themselves the victims of hate crimes and sexual assaults. Current rules leave these individuals little recourse but to close their eyes and hope and pray that the attack will end quickly. As SCCC Director of Public Relations Katie Kasprzak put it, “It’s time to do away with arbitrary school policies and state laws that stack the odds in favor of dangerous criminals who have no regard for school policy or state law.”
For more information contact Katie Kasprzak at Katie.Kasprzak@ConcealedCampus.org or visit www.ConcealedCampus.org.
*“Crime, Deterrence, and Right-to-Carry Concealed Handguns,” John Lott and David Mustard, Journal of Legal Studies (v.26, no.1, pages 1-68, January 1997); “An Analysis of the Arrest Rate of Texas Concealed Handgun License Holders as Compared to the Arrest Rate of the Entire Texas Population,” William E. Sturdevant, September 1, 2000; Florida Department of Justice statistics, 1998; Florida Department of State, “Concealed Weapons/Firearms License Statistical Report,” 1998; Texas Department of Public Safety and the U.S. Census Bureau, reported in San Antonio Express-News, September 2000; Texas Department of Corrections data, 1996-2000, compiled by the Texas State Rifle Association
ABOUT STUDENTS FOR CONCEALED CARRY ON CAMPUS - Students for Concealed Carry on Campus is a national, non-partisan, grassroots organization comprised of over 30,000 college students, college faculty members, parents of college students, and concerned citizens who believe that holders of concealed handgun permits should enjoy the same rights on college campuses that current laws afford them virtually everywhere else. SCCC is dedicated to persuading state governments and school administrators to approve laws and campus policies that will grant all citizens with concealed handgun permits the right to carry their concealed handguns on college campuses. SCCC is not affiliated with the NRA, a political party, or any other organization.
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