December 5, 2008


Times Writers Group: Gun control didn’t help India

By Barbara Banaian

Western India was under siege last week when 171 people were killed by armed terrorists. In Mumbai, the protection in railway stations — where the attackers first came — were bamboo sticks called lathis. Security guards at hotels had metal detectors, but no guns because Indian gun laws made it difficult to arm security guards.

Indian gun laws stem from colonial days when the British wanted to keep the Indians without power — subjects under the queen. They could have used that power last week. Gun laws failed to keep people of Mumbai safe, but here in Minnesota, many still labor under the belief that they do.

To challenge that belief, a group at St. Cloud State University recently held a forum to confront and dispel misconceptions about Minnesota’s conceal and carry law.

Bill Jacobson and Terence McCloskey are members of Students for Conceal and Carry on Campus, which formed to educate the public on the facts about gun ownership. Their goal is to keep open lines of communication while addressing the most pervasive misconceptions about conceal and carry.

First among the myths is the belief that an armed citizenry would lead to “wild west shoot-outs” on campuses throughout the state. Yet for the last several years, 1 percent of Minnesotans has held a permit to carry and the frontier scenarios have not materialized.

A second misconception is that gun-free zones will make people safer, when the opposite can be true. Gun-free zones may even attract mass shooters under the assumption that they will face no consequence for their deeds. Mumbai tells that tale.

A third misconception is that if students have guns on campus, the other students may feel intimidated and less afraid to speak in class. There is no evidence of this at colleges where students are allowed to carry guns.

To those who believe the answer to violence isn’t more violence (or the answer to guns isn’t more guns), consider what SWAT teams are for and why they are effective. Also, please note that the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system legally bans guns from students, faculty and employees on campus.

Yet there has been more than one armed robbery on campus since 2003, when conceal and carry was enacted. In the past three years there have been two aggravated assaults at St. Cloud State but no weapons violations, according to the school’s 2008 crime report. And nationwide, there has never been a shooting at campuses with conceal and carry.

Assault rifle bans are another area of confusion for people. Why should we take away people’s rights to have assault rifles when most crimes are committed by small, concealable handguns? One might ask the same of the First Amendment. Do we really need to take away people’s right to free speech?

Your right to conceal and carry is granted by a permit, which is given only for a limited time, and only after a class, a test and comprehensive background checks.

People owning and carrying guns tend to be responsible because it’s hazardous to their health to be otherwise. (Ninety percent of the advantage with a gun is the surprise factor. It is a leveling of the playing field.)

And if you fail to renew your license on time there are strict fines: more than 30 days late, and you have to retake the class. Can you imagine this rule applying to the First Amendment?

Gun control is part of “security theater,” in which we believe these measures make us safer without any compelling evidence (and with, quite possibly, good evidence to the contrary.) The contrary evidence is debated and vilified, but the surrender of Second Amendment rights is upheld as progressive and modern, while Mumbai mourns.

This is the opinion of Barbara Banaian, a professional pianist who lives in the St. Cloud area. Her column is published the first Friday of the month.

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One of the posters on the Times message boards (KristianT) is an employee of SCSU and also claims to be former military.

He doesn't want students to carry becuase when they find out they are failing his class he doesn't want to be shot. When another poster asked him how many black eyes he's received in all of the student who've failed his class...he didn't respond back.

My thoughts on it are...if they're going to get gun violent on you...what current system would prevent them from doing that...the carry law certainly doesn't make it more likely...

and this guy is a prof!!

Kristian M Twombly (Employee)
Assistant Professor of Music
B.M. 1999, D.M.A. 2004, University of Maryland
kmtwombly@stcloudstate.edu
Web site: http://web.stcloudstate.edu/kmtwombly
Office Address: Music
Performing Arts Center 248
Saint Cloud State University
720 Fourth Avenue South
Saint Cloud, Minnesota 56301-4498
Office Phone: (320) 308-5638

To bad they didnt do a better job of correcting the misconceptions of Mn nonexistant CC law.
Or the fact that you need to retake the carry courses regardless of your permit expireing 30 days or not.

Story link: http://www.sctimes.com/article/20081205/OPINION/112050019/-1/Category=videonetwork

Wtf?

She probably misread her notes on the renewal issue. Not a big deal, and not a reason to give a friend a hard time. Barb Banaian is a great person coming into a topic she isn't that familiar with.

And that professor should have been at my presentation if she had concerns. Several other faculty members were.

No, it is not too bad. It will not help to change things if the opposition thinks students will be OC’ing on campus.

Like Jeff Synder says :
"No HCI campaign more clearly demonstrates the elitist beliefs underlying the campaign to eradicate gun ownership. Given the qualifications required of permit holders, HCI and the media can only believe that common law-abiding citizens are seething cauldrons of homicidal rage, ready to kill to avenge any slight to their dignity, eager to seek out and summarily execute the lawless. Only lack of immediate access to a gun restrains them and prevents the blood from flowing in the streets. They are so mentally and morally deficient that they would mistake a permit to carry a weapon in self-defense as a state-sanctioned license to kill at will."


yep these dipshits teach the next generation.

Minnesota "Permit" to carry.
https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/sta ... id=624.714

Why does the "Right To Bear Arms" need further permission before allowing citizens to protect themselves in public?

Supreme Court Decides Second
Amendment Case
The Supreme Court votes 5 to 4 to strike down a
Washington, D. C. ban on the private possession of handguns. Justice Scalia wrote the majority opinion.

In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) the Court considered the following question: Do D.C. Code Section 7-2502.02(a)(4), which generally bars the registration of handguns; Section 22-4504(a), which bars carrying a pistol without a license; and Section 7-2507.02, which requires that all lawfully owned firearms be kept unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock, violate the Second Amendment rights of individuals who are not affiliated with any state-regulated militia, but who wish to keep handguns and other firearms for private use in their homes?
The Court concluded that the Second Amendment does establish an individual right to keep and bear arms for self-defense and hunting. The Court concluded that the D.C. gun ban could not stand. At the same time, the Court recognized that the government can regulate gun rights. The Court said its decision should not be interpreted to question the right of government to: prohibit felons and the mentally ill from owning weapons, prohibit guns in schools or public buildings, ban certain categories of guns not commonly used for self-defense, and to establish certain other conditions on gun ownership.


Opinion of the Court (edited version)
District of Columbia v Heller (2008)

Full Opinion
Supreme Court Opinion (6/26/2008)

Opinion below of the D. C Circuit:
Parker v District of Columbia (2007)

That says it all for me, I'm afraid. My alma mater, in a state where the officials are hugely anti-carry.

I'm a graduate student at St Cloud State University and I've met Kristian Twombly... I would find it really hard to believe he was ever in the military; he's your typical liberal elite, "I ride my bicycle to campus even in winter in my birkenstocks" sort of professor. I have a feeling he was trying to portray himself as former military in order to try and give himself some sort of credibility and offset his obvious liberal bias.

Here is his new website:
http://www.stcloudstate.edu/music/faculty/twombly.asp

Take a look and judge for yourself

Welcome to TCC hkinthewind and other new members!

Welcome hkinthewind!!

Thanks everyone! I just happened to stumble across this site while looking for information on CCW holsters I was happily surprised to see there was a site that caters to permit holders in Minnesota.