Atlanta Forward readers reacted on our blogs to recent columns about a proposed bill in the Georgia General Assembly, which did not pass, that would have allowed concealed weapons to be carried on college campuses and in churches. Two Georgia Tech students debated the issue. Here is a sampling of comments:
Drudge: Nothing says "easy victims" quite like ruling something a "gun-free zone."
Rodney Kent: This is entering dangerous territory. Campus security and city police should be patrolling these areas better. If there are poor patrol efforts, city police are allowing this to happen and are part of the crime. This means some police are looking the other way and are in sympathy with anarchy. With guns in every dorm, it becomes extremely easy for the criminal element to attain guns by slipping into the dorms and stealing guns from others. The students probably should be studying at night and seldom seen on the streets after dark. If so, they are risking themselves as a victim candidate. Those who like to go to the nightly places where the criminal element preys will just have to take their lives in their own hands.
I: I would think a top 10 engineering school like Georgia Tech would have the capacities to find a better way for self defense than touting a six shooter like the Wild West. Make it a project, devise a technology that renders muggings, shootings, rape impotent. Actually, moving the campus out of the city could do it. Seriously, the commandment "Thou shall not kill" is the commandment to live by.
Don't Tread: As I recall, you liberals made that same lame "Wild West" argument when concealed carry was first proposed here — everybody would settle their arguments with guns, blood running in the streets, etc. And you were wrong. Crime has gone down in states that have adopted conceal carry laws (not that you care).
Sawb: It would seem law-abiding citizens who can legally carry a firearm should not be denied that freedom simply because they go onto a college campus. One of the big arguments against campus carry was that students are irresponsible and prone to abuse alcohol. So, it is kind of ironic that while denying law-abiding citizens the right to carry on campus, the same Legislature passed a bill making it easier to obtain alcohol on campus.
