Citizens should never be disarmed in any location where crimes occur — which includes, but is not limited to, churches and colleges.
Churches are private property. Georgia should treat churches as private property. The state does not inject itself into the equation of whether Starbuck’s or any other private business allows firearms in their businesses.
Just last year, a lay preacher was shot in church while praying in College Park, a church that employs armed guards. The shooter was a former guard at the church. Fortunately, the shooter was only after one person and chose not to shoot any other worshipers.
Other places such as Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook resulted in massive Gun Free-zone infractions. If you believe churches are safe, Google “church shootings” and do some research. Not to be lost in history is Alberta Williams King. Martin Luther King Jr.’s mother was shot as she sat at the organ in the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. It was against the law for a firearm to be in church on that day as well. Did that help her?
Violent crimes on college campuses are rising, while the opposite is happening in places where firearms are allowed. Just last year on college campuses in Georgia, there were 38 forcible rapes, 46 aggravated assaults and 87 robberies. In fact, each year, the Business Insider Law & Order magazine rates the 25 most dangerous colleges in America. Georgia Tech was ranked No. 11 on 2011 and No. 10 in 2012. I believe the current policy has flaws.
Many people are under the false impression that if the state decriminalizes firearms on campus, all students will be able to carry firearms. Only people over 21 years old who have passed FBI, GBI and mental health background checks and who are already legal to carry in Georgia would be allowed. Why should licensed individuals be arrested for stepping across an invisible property line? They shouldn’t!
The chancellor of Georgia’s university system testified in 2010 against allowing guns in vehicles on college campuses. He stated the policy they have in effect is a good policy, and they did not want it changed. He predicted that if guns were allowed in vehicles, a student could get upset in class, go to hisvehicle, get his firearm and come back and shoot up the class. Didn’t happen.
In 2013, the very same chancellor stated that the policy they have in effect is a good policy. He said guns could be kept in a vehicle, and the working policy should stay in effect. Funny thing: 2010 – guns in cars bad; 2013 – guns in cars good.
When emotions enter the debate on campus carry, people bring up past history and horrible mass shootings. Emotional people do not want to admit that in each of those incidents, the perpetrators of the crime broke numerous laws. No law would have stopped these monsters from committing their acts upon our most precious assets, our children. I do not believe we should we give the monsters more targets and opportunities.
Jerry Henry is executive director of the gun rights group GeorgiaCarry.org.
