UIUC Student Slays 7 at RA NIU

[ham]

someone posted long ago the site featuring the hallucinating writings of that asian freak student, also a murderer...anyone got that link again?

[Albert Hidel]

someone posted long ago the site featuring the hallucinating writings of that asian freak student, also a murderer...anyone got that link again?

The Annotated Richard McBeef

[ham]

wow! mr. sukiyaki was better than Kafka, indeed!

[Don Dresden]

Columbine To Va. Tech To NIU: Gun-Free Zones Or Killing Fields?

BY JOHN R. LOTT JR.

Posted 2/25/2008

As Northern Illinois University restarts classes this week, one thing is clear: Six minutes proved too long.

It took six minutes before the police were able to enter the classroom that horrible Thursday, and in that short time five people were murdered, 16 wounded.

Six minutes is actually record-breaking speed for the police arriving at such an attack, but it was simply not fast enough. Still, the police were much faster than at the Virginia Tech attack last year.

The previous Thursday, five people were killed in the city council chambers in Kirkwood, Mo. There was even a police officer already there when the attack occurred.

But, as happens time after time in these attacks when uniformed police are there, the killers either wait for the police to leave the area or they are the first people killed. In Kirkwood, the police officer was killed immediately when the attack started. People cowered or were reduced to futilely throwing chairs at the killer.

Just like attacks last year at the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Neb., the Trolley Square Mall in Salt Lake City and the recent attack at the Tinley Park Mall in Illinois, or all the public school attacks, they had one thing in common: They took place in "gun-free zones," where private citizens were not allowed to carry their guns with them.

The malls in Omaha and Salt Lake City were in states that let people carry concealed handguns, but private property owners are allowed to post signs that ban guns; those malls were among the few places in their states that chose such a ban.

In the Trolley Square attack, an off-duty police officer fortunately violated the ban and stopped the attack. The attack at Virginia Tech or the other public school attacks occur in some of the few areas within their states that people are not allowed to carry concealed handguns.

It is not just recent killings that are occurring in these gun-free zones. The Columbine High School shooting left 13 murdered in 1999; Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, had 23 who were fatally shot by a deranged man in 1991; and a McDonald's in Southern California had 21 people shot dead in 1984.

Nor are these horrible incidents limited to just gun-free zones in the U.S. In 1996, Martin Bryant killed 35 people in Port Arthur, Australia. In the last half-dozen years, European countries — including France, Germany and Switzerland — have experienced multiple-victim shootings. The worst in Germany resulted in 17 deaths; in Switzerland, one attack claimed the lives of 14 regional legislators.

At some point you would think the media would notice that something is going on here, that these murderers aren't just picking their targets at random. And this pattern isn't really too surprising. Most people understand that guns deter criminals.

If a killer were stalking your family, would you feel safer putting a sign out front announcing, "This home is a gun-free zone"? But that is what all these places did.

Even when attacks occur, having civilians with permitted concealed handguns limits the damage. A major factor in determining how many people are harmed by these killers is the amount of time that elapses between when the attack starts and someone is able to arrive on the scene with a gun.

In cases from the Colorado Springs church shooting last December, in which a parishioner who was given permission by the minister to carry her concealed gun into the church quickly stopped the murder, to an attack last year in downtown Memphis to the Appalachian Law School to high schools in such places as Pearl, Miss., concealed handgun permit holders have stopped attacks well before uniformed police could possibly have arrived. Just a few weeks ago, Israeli teachers stopped a terrorist attack at a school in their country.

Indeed, despite the fears being discussed about the risks of concealed handgun permit holders, I haven't found one of these multiple-victim public shootings where a permit holder has accidentally shot a bystander.

With about 5 million Americans currently with concealed handgun permits in the U.S., and with states starting to have right-to-carry laws for as long as 80 years, we have a lot of experience with these laws and one thing is very clear: Concealed handgun permit holders are extremely law-abiding. Those who lose their permits for any gun-related violation are measured in the hundredths or thousandths of a percentage point.

We also have a lot of experience with permitted concealed handguns in schools. Prior to the 1995 Safe School Zone Act, states with right-to-carry laws let teachers or others carry concealed handguns at school. There is not a single instance that I or others have found where this produced a single problem.

Though in a minority, a number of universities -- from large public schools such as Colorado State and the University of Utah to small private schools such as Hamline in Minnesota -- let students carry concealed handguns on school property.

Many more schools, from Dartmouth College to Boise State University, let professors carry concealed handguns. Again, with no evidence of problems.

Few know that Dylan Klebold, one of the two Columbine killers, was closely following Colorado legislation that would have let citizens carry a concealed handgun. Klebold strongly opposed the legislation and openly talked about it.

No wonder, as the bill being debated would have allowed permitted guns to be carried on school property. It is quite a coincidence that he attacked Columbine High School the very day the legislature was scheduled to vote on the bill.

With all the media coverage of the types of guns used and how the criminal obtained the gun, at some point the news media might begin to mention the one common feature of these attacks: They keep occurring in gun-free zones.

Gun-free zones are a magnet for these attacks.

Lott is the author of "Freedomnomics" and a senior research scientist at the University of Maryland.

Copyright 2000-2008 Investor's Business Daily, Inc.

[Armando Ramos]

Bill would let college students bear arms

By MICK HINTON World Capitol Bureau
2/27/2008


OKLAHOMA CITY -- A bill that would allow some college students to carry concealed weapons on campus is headed for the House floor.

House Bill 2513 by Rep. Jason Murphey, R-Guthrie, was approved 14-2 on Monday by the House Judiciary and Public Safety Committee.

The bill would allow students to carry firearms on campus if they are at least 21 and are licensed to carry a concealed weapon.

"As long as students kept their weapons concealed, they could go into class with them," Murphey said.

He said he decided that the bill was needed after the Feb. 14 shootings that left six dead, including the gunman, at Northern Illinois University and an attack in April at Virginia Tech in which a gunman killed 32 people.

Murphey said the bill, which would apply only to public colleges and universities, would allow students to defend themselves, especially if they were being victimized by someone.

But the greater value of such a law would be that a potential shooter might be hesitant to come onto a college campus, he said.

"A gunman would not know who might be trained and could defend themselves," Murphey said.

"If you can walk down Main Street with a concealed weapon, you should be able to walk onto a college campus with one," he said.

Rep. Paul Roan, an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper for 25 years, voted against the bill, saying such a law could greatly hinder law enforcement.

"You wouldn't know who the players are," he said.

Because weapons now are banned, he said, police can tell if someone comes onto campus "with a gun for evil purposes."

Roan, D-Tishomingo, said the amount of training to qualify for a concealed weapon permit is minimal. Those who are granted licenses have to take eight hours of training that includes classes and practice at a firing range.

Roan said the bill would mean that a person who practiced with a simple kind of gun at a range could come onto campus armed with a high-powered weapon.

Murphey's original bill, requested by a constituent, would have changed the law so that a person could transport a rifle, shotgun or pistol "open and loaded" in a vehicle at any time.

He said the bill would have been patterned after the "Texas Travel" law, which provides that Texans can have loaded weapons in their vehicles.

Murphey said the committee did not like that version of the bill, so he decided to scratch that language and insert the new proposal regarding guns on college campuses.

Oklahoma State University spokesman Gary Shutt said OSU is tracking the bill.

Noting that students are not allowed to have guns on campus, Shutt said police still are evaluating the proposal.

[Armando Ramos]

A source identified the gunman as a current graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Maybe he was drunk. Or not drunk enough:

Taming St. Patrick’s Daze

The drinking has already begun. You might be reading this first thing Friday, but somewhere on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus, students are pounding beers. They've been up since dawn on this "Unofficial St. Patrick's Day," ready to hit the bars before noon and keep it going throughout the weekend....

Why isn't UIUC professor George Gollin doing something about this?

Doesn't he care?

Doesn't he have a public service obligation?

Is he shirking his duty again, just like he shirked his duty to his family?

Are there Christians somewhere praying and issuing degrees without his approval?

[Don Dresden]

Schools Should Arm Against A Sea Of Troubles

Laurence Cohen
February 29, 2008

We've all heard the nostalgic stories from Catholics who remember the good old days in Catholic school, when a nun wrapped them on the knuckles with a ruler for some sin, real or imagined.

Looked at through the lens of today, what is remarkable about those anecdotes is the underlying reality that the nuns with the rulers were the best-armed people in the school. No student bashed with a ruler was going to turn on the good sister with a sawed-off shotgun or assault rifle or knife or hammer borrowed from Martin Luther.

As a residual memory from the good old days, schools and other facilities with easy accessibility continue to take some comfort in the notion that if weaponry is discouraged, prohibited or at least frowned upon, the good guys will be the only folks wielding justice, if only with a ruler. But in this Garden of Eden, this "gun-free zone" age we pretend to live in, the bad guys, the crazy guys, the unstable guys do have (dare we say the word out loud?) guns.

We leave our most vulnerable population open for target practice. As the disturbing stories pile up as high as the dead bodies at the site of a massacre, as we become more aware that most of the mass killings of late across the nation ended not with the death of the killer by an avenging civilian angel or police officer, but by suicide, the no-guns ethos begins to look somewhat ridiculous.

Our public officials (especially in a sissy Northeastern states such as Connecticut) are not inclined to engage the public in conversation about the potential benefits of carrying a weapon -- just in case.

In truth, we in the "progressive" Northeast find the notion of being Dodge City so distasteful that most school districts prohibit "security guards" from carrying weapons. Even the nuns had rulers. For years, academic bad boy John Lott, from pulpits at Yale and various think tanks, did his career prospects no favor with research suggesting that "concealed-carry" laws that encourage the good guys to carry weapons actually reduce crime — both by the simple act of blowing away the bad guys, and more important, by giving the bad guys pause before committing crimes against folks who might have a pistol in their purse.

One doesn't have to be a card-carrying member of the National Rifle Association to be just a bit taken aback by the freedom with which nuts with guns can wander across college campuses or public schools or church parking lots, killing and killing again, with no one apparently equipped to pull out a competing gun and shoot them dead. Louise Zoller received all manner of accolades and national media exposure earlier last month after the 33-year-old Florida woman confronted a crazy husband (not her own) and knocked his gun out of his hand after he killed his wife at a day-care center. Amid all the cheers for her bravery, there was nary a word about how nice it would have been if someone on the staff of the day-care center had pulled a gun from a desk drawer and shot the crazy husband in the head.

But that just wouldn't do. This month, in Bartow, Fla., a teacher at a public technical school was fired for having a handgun in his truck. In the parking lot.

It was Albert Einstein who confessed he never thought about the future, because "it comes soon enough." And so it seems to be with politicians and educators and public health types. After a public massacre, they are quick to bring in grief counselors to tend to the survivors. But any efforts to plan for an uncertain future, to ponder the risks and benefits of licensing and training staff in public facilities to carry a weapon, is too messy a piece of business.

Colleges are all atwitter these days with "lockdown" plans — again, after a slaughter has already taken place. No talk yet of how the dean of students will be armed with a really heavy textbook to throw at the intruder. And certainly, not a word about three professors, two department heads and one provost who will be authorized to pull out 9 mm handguns and do some serious damage if the situation calls for firepower.

Laurence D. Cohen is a public policy consultant who served as special assistant to former Gov. John G. Rowland. His column appears every other Friday. He can be reached at cohencolumn@aol.com.

[Don Dresden]

Concealed carry garners student support nationwide

Kat Zhao
Issue date: 2/29/08

In light of the shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University (NIU), students across the nation have assembled in support of policies for concealed carry of guns on college campuses.

The group known as Students for Concealed Carry on Campus (SCCC) has garnered more than 18,000 members, becoming the largest non-profit student organization advocating the right to carry concealed guns for safety and security reasons.

Some Washington University students, like College Libertarians President Mitchell Port, identify with SCCC's goals. Port sees support for concealed carry in the Second Amendment.

"The right to bear arms is a fundamental right, and being able to protect yourself is extremely important," said Port.

The state of Missouri grants concealed carry licenses, but the University prohibits carrying firearms on its campus, except in the case of licensed police officers of the Washington University Police Department.

"Basically, as a private university, [the University] can set its own rules," said Port. "We think it would be better, and we encourage [the administration] to consider concealed carry."

According to a description on SCCC's Facebook page, students comprise 90 percent of SCCC's membership while parents, faculty and others make up the remaining 10 percent.

"When we started, it was pretty much just a group on Facebook to get like-minded individuals together. Since then, we've had a nationwide protest, with the second one being planned for [this coming] April," said Stephen Feltoon, Midwest regional director for the group and a graduate of Miami University in Ohio.

According to Feltoon, 36 states grant concealed carry licenses to those "qualified. " To qualify, the license carrier must meet several requirements including age, criminal history and freedom from drug addiction. Many of the states also have a method checking mental health databases.

Despite the large number of states providing licenses for concealed carry, few colleges in those states permit licensees to do so on campuses. "The rules vary by state. In Virginia, [concealed carry] is legal. Virginia law says that each individual university can create their own policy. Most prohibit firearms," said Feltoon.

SCCC said it would like to see that changed. The group advocates the right of anyone with a valid license to carry a concealed handgun on any college campus in a state that permits concealed carry in public.

"Right now, we're trying to work with state legislators that support favorable legislation," said Feltoon.

Port does not however, believe the University would ever support sanctioning concealed carry at the University due to the administration and the student population.

"If they tried or did enact it, there would be a large outcry against it. Even if it had gotten past the administration, the student response to it would make it have to change and go back to not allowing it at all," he said.

The College Libertarians plan to host an informational event for students to learn more about the arguments behind reduced gun control.

"Wash. U. is primarily a liberal school. Students don't hear the other side of the issue," said Port. "A lot of the statistics that I've looked at have shown that it is actually safer when people do have the ability to carry weapons. A lot of times people who do have guns are able to stop crimes or protect themselves."

Samuel Fuqua, a sophomore at NIU and the provisional campus leader for SCCC, agrees with Port's position.

"Statistically, more guns haven't meant more violence," he said. "The idea is that if we allow students to protect themselves on campus, there will be lower crime rate on campus, because concealed carry states have lowered crime rates."

Fuqua doubts that gun control changes will be made on the NIU campus anytime soon since the state of Illinois prohibits concealed carry. However, he believes many students at NIU are beginning to support the possibility.

"From what I've heard, it's been very pro concealed carry. I haven't talked to everyone about it, but it seemed like there are a lot of people who would like to see concealed carry on campus," he said.

Currently, 13 states are considering legislation that would permit concealed carry on college campuses.

[Don Dresden]

Colleges to allow guns on campus?
State assessing antidote to mad school shooters

Posted: March 03, 2008
9:53 pm Eastern


By Bob Unruh
© 2008 WorldNetDaily


Arizona lawmakers hope to stem the wave of unarmed students killed in campus slayings through a plan that would let adults carry firearms onto the grounds of the state's universities.

"The police got to both the Virginia Tech murder scene and the New Life Church [in Colorado] in about six minutes," noted Larry Pratt, the chief of Gun Owners of America. "At Virginia Tech, 30 people died. At New Life, two died in the parking lot and once the bad guy got inside the building he was engaged by (armed) security team volunteers and nobody else died. In fact, he was finished in about 30 seconds."

That, he said, ought to illustrate the issue as clear as anything.

In Arizona, legislation that would allow people to carry their guns onto community college or university campuses has been advancing, and now awaits further Senate action, after critics demanded public schools be removed from the plan.

State Sen. Karen Johnson, the bill's sponsor, said she was reluctant to make that change, because "I still feel our little kindergartners are sitting there as sitting ducks," she told the Arizona Republic. But Johnson said the remaining bill now has a better chance to move forward.

One recent vote on Senate Bill 1214, in the Senate Judiciary Committee, came just 11 days after a gunman killed five unarmed people and himself at Northern Illinois University.

Pratt noted that Utah and several local jurisdictions scattered around the U.S. already allow people with a license to carry their weapons onto campuses.

"We would like to see every state do something like that," he said, because of the tragedies that have been repeated multiple times in the past few years: a gunman starts shooting and killing people, they die, and then police arrive.

"Until we change that sequence, we're going to continue to have people become victims," he told WND.

Pratt cited the April 2007 Virginia Tech case, in which shooter Cho Seung-Hui, 23, fatally shot 32 people in a dorm and a classroom before killing himself, as well as the New Life Church shooting in Colorado Springs, Colo., in December. Although the church operation is not identical to an educational campus, its sprawling acres and buildings and thousands of people have similarities. Police arrived on both scenes within minutes, but the death tolls were 32 in Virginia, two in Colorado.

"What greater contrast can there be?" Pratt suggested.

He also said carrying a weapon, not just having it at home, is founded in reason.

"Eighty-five percent of the attacks against persons actually occur outside the home," he said, citing women in parking lots, motorists along a road, wherever victims might be.

And just the deterrence would make a big difference. He noted in the U.S., where citizens are allowed guns, only 13 percent of home invasions happened when the home is occupied. In England, where firearms bans are much more expansive, the rate is 65 percent.

"Clearly signs that say 'No guns beyond this point' are not a deterrent," he said.

Police chiefs from Arizona State University, the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona told the newspaper they fear confusion with having citizens armed would lead to more people being killed. Officers could, they warned, shoot the wrong person.

The latest attack on unarmed teachers and students happened on Valentine's Day, when Stephen Kazmierczak, 27, walked into a Northern Illinois University auditorium and shot and killed five people, and wounded 16 others.

The gunman then shot himself.

The issue has been raised in recent weeks by a WND columnist. Dennis Prager, a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and author of several books, wrote:

Which of these three options is more likely to prevent further murderous rampages: a) making universities closed campuses and increasing the police presence (as the president of NIU has promised to do); b) making guns much harder to obtain or c) enabling specially trained students and faculty to carry concealed weapons on campus?

Because political correctness has replaced wisdom at nearly all universities, colleges are considering options a and b. But the only thing the first option will accomplish is to reduce the quality of university life and render the campus a larger version of the contemporary airport. And the second option will have no effect whatsoever since whoever wishes to commit murder will be able to obtain guns illegally.

But if would-be murderers know that anywhere they go to kill students, there is a real likelihood that one or two students will shoot them first, and if in fact some would-be murderer is killed before he can murder any, or at least many, students, we will see far fewer such attempts made.

The Arizona Citizens Defense League notes the state constitution provides, "The right of the individual citizen to bear arms in defense of himself or the state shall not be impaired. …"

Lawmakers in Arizona told WND the legislation now is pending before the Senate. A Marine Corps veteran, identified as William, however, was urging action.

The veteran, who said he now works in security in Baghdad, wrote lawmakers:

"Sir, if I or any other responsible law-abiding gun owner was attending class in Illinois or Virginia on those fateful days and was allowed to carry, these tragedies could have been averted," he said ."Opponents … say that it is irresponsible to allow 18-25 year old young adults their basic right of self-defense. I have to say that I find this argument absurd. There [are] young adults carrying firearms right here in Baghdad in the Army, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy. These servicemen and and women's age does not in any way handicap them from being responsible with their firearms."

People who desire training in firearms handling also apparently would have no significant difficulty.

Ignatius Piazza, founder and director of the Frontsight Firearms Training Institute, said he was committing to provide every Arizona school teacher with a $2,000 handgun course, free of charge, at the time the plan is approved.

"Every time sanity begins to prevail with good legislators like Arizona Senate Majoirty Leader Theyer Verschoor and Sen. Karen Johnson introducing a real solution to protect our children from a violent attack, the unenlightened begin crying about their fear of teachers with guns," Piazza said.

Piazza also dismissed school presidents' concerns over confused police officers.

"When police arrive on the scene it will be very easy for them to identify the assailant. He will be the only dead body because an armed teacher stopped a potential massacre as soon as it started," he said.

The gun-control advocates at the Brady Campaign already has objected, however.

"Armed students? Armed teachers? That is the response of the gun lobby to the horrible massacre at Virginia Tech," the group said. "Despite the massacre at Virginia Tech, college campuses and schools are safer than the communities that surround them, precisely because those institutions have barred or tightly controlled firearms. We need to support those institutions, not strip them of the ability to control firearms on campus."

The group warned Nevada also has considered a plan to allow teachers to be armed, and South Carolina, Alabama, Michigan and Ohio are looking at plans similar to Arizona's.

But Pratt repeated his insistence that it's important to be prepared for a deadly attack. After killing two people at a Christian training center in Arvada, Colo., 24-year-old Matthew Murray went to Colorado Springs intending more murder and mayhem.

Murray shot and killed two girls in the New Life Church's parking lot, then headed inside the building where thousands of worshippers were concluding a service.

A volunteer security guard, Jeanne Assam, confronted him almost immediately and fired at him. He fell, and an autopsy later said he had shot himself.

[Don Dresden]

Penn State students seek right to carry weapons

Friday, Mar. 07, 2008

PSU students seek right to carry weapons

By Adam Smeltz- asmeltz@centredaily.com

UNIVERSITY PARK -- Nathaniel Sheetz, 23, a Penn State graduate student in industrial engineering, often carries a handgun. And he can: He has a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

The moment he steps on campus, however, the permit is no good. Like most other U.S. universities, Penn State prohibits concealed guns on campus, including for those licensed to carry them.

Police receive the sole exception.

But since an outburst of shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University, Sheetz and some other Penn Staters are looking to assert their gun-carrying privilege on campus.

"Even an exceptional response time (from police) doesn't stop a killer" from a massacre, Sheetz said Thursday. "When (police) take minutes to get there -- it doesn't matter to someone who's willing to commit suicide.

"The only people who would be able to stop something like that would be students, faculty and staff who are on-site, who already are right there and could engage the shooter," he said.

Plus, Sheetz said, carrying a concealed weapon can enable self-defense. "If you refuse to give people the opportunity to defend themselves, you put a lot of people at risk."

He and roughly 50 to 100 other Penn State students have loosely aligned themselves with Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. SCCC, a national lobbying group that promotes the cause, has grown to include some 20,000 supporters over the past 10 months.

Its presence here is unofficial. There is no formal student group at the University Park campus, though as many as 20 students participated in a weeklong empty-holster protest in October, Sheetz said.

They wore empty holsters to object to the university ban on concealed handguns. Another protest is planned for late April.

Sheetz also has met with Steve Shelow, the director of university police services.

Shelow said he does not see the advocacy as "necessarily radical or extremist."

But he does disagree with Sheetz's arguments. Allowing firearms on campus could launch a string of safety concerns, Shelow said.

They include worries connected to judgment, training, usage, theft and alcohol abuse, he said.

Asked whether more weapons on campus could diminish overall safety, Shelow was frank.

"I'm not sure how to answer that," he said. "But I just think it's not where we want to be."

Bill Mahon, the vice president for university relations, pointed to tragic shootings at non-campus sites, such as shopping malls, where people can conceal handguns.

"Nobody stepped forward and stopped the shooter" in most non-campus circumstances, Mahon said. " ... We all wish it could happen. It sounds like it would be so awesome to see it happen. But there is not, in fact, a long record of it."

He called attention to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Of 29,569 Americans who died by gunfire in 2004, only 229 were killed in justifiable homicides by private citizens with firearms, according to FBI data on the Brady Web site.

"We don't believe guns are safe on campus," Mahon said. He also emphasized that nearly none of the accidental gun violence in the U.S. happens on college campuses. (In 2001, more than 800 people in the U.S. were killed in accidental shootings, according to federal data.)

Sheetz said he and his allies on campus will continue to raise awareness for their cause.

Their goal, he said, is "to educate people that every day in Pennsylvania, thousands of people are carrying guns all over the state, and they're not doing anything wrong with them."?