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Campus Carry: Will Florida Legislators Do The Right Thing?

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Woman Being Stalked (stock photo from Pond5)

Florida’s “campus carry” bill, approved by the state’s House Judiciary Committee on November 19,  would allow students who are 21 or older, and who possess special government permission slips (concealed carry “licenses”), to go armed on the state’s public college and university campuses. Pretty weak tea, but better than nothing. The legislature should pass the bill as soon as it hits the floor in January, then come back to improve it (by eliminating the age limit and the “license” requirement) as soon as humanly possible.

Yes, I just said that the bill, as written, is too restrictive. Neither violent crime, nor the inalienable human right to self-defense (which happens to have been recognized in the US Constitution for 224 years now as the right “to keep and bear arms,” with no mention of “licenses”), magically disappear when one crosses the line separating a college campus from the rest of the world.

And yes, I know some people disagree. But this issue is not suffused with nuance. One side is clearly right, the other is clearly wrong. Supporters of victim disarmament (they call it “gun control” to avoid the public shame and embarrassment involved in saying what they actually mean) offer a number of supposed arguments for their position. All of those arguments boil down to this claim:

“It is better for a University of Florida co-ed to be mugged, beaten, raped and strangled to death with her own pantyhose than for her to carry a hunk of metal that triggers irrational fear on my part.”

Did I say that one side here is clearly right and the other side is clearly wrong? Pardon me while I correct myself: One side here is clearly good and the other side is clearly evil, or insane, or both.

This isn’t complicated, folks: You can support the right to self-defense, or you can support letting rapists and murderers have their way with the innocent victims you’ve disarmed for their convenience. It’s one or the other, and there is no in-between.

If the legislature passes this bill, Florida will become the ninth state to partially and imperfectly step out of the fantasy world in which victim disarmers would have our children live — or, more to the point, die — as the price of pursuing their educations. Florida should have been first. Florida should go further. And the other 41 states should follow.

Thomas L. Knapp is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

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Paris: No Grave Too Warm for the Political Class to Dance On

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Arc De Triomphe

For a columnist or pundit, there’s no greater temptation than to get something written — Quick! Now! — about the latest, greatest, deadliest catastrophe. After all, if it bleeds it leads.

I felt that urge the night of the Paris terror attacks. For once, I resisted. I wanted more information. I wanted to see how the usual suspects responded. I wanted to see whether or not my own immediate assumptions and predictions would hold up before I held forth.

Unfortunately, my assumptions and predictions turned out to be spot-on. The American and European political classes didn’t bother waiting for the bodies to cool — or, for that matter, to even be counted — before commencing their triumphant dance on the graves. The attacks may have been unexpected, but they certainly weren’t unwelcome. The political class immediately pivoted from a pro forma parody of normal peoples’ heartfelt condemnation to special pleading for more power.

Within hours, prominent War Party mouthpiece (and former US ambassador to the United Nations) John Bolton rushed out a piece on “four important lessons we must learn” from the attacks. Predictably, “never trust John Bolton with any decision more consequential than ordering pizza, and even then be watchful lest ye end up with anchovies” didn’t make the cut.

CIA director John Brennan and his predecessor, James Woolsey, blame whistleblower Edward Snowden for the attacks. Snowden crashed the US intelligence community’s illegal surveillance party. If only state apparatchiks had all the unaccountable and unlimited power state apparatchiks wanted, we’d all be safe, see?

Who should we blame for the murder and mayhem in Paris? Of course — OF COURSE! — the evil individuals who planned and carried out the attacks.

But when the prescriptions of an identifiable American ideological tendency  — call it “neoconservatism,” call it “hawkishness,” call it “interventionism,” call it whatever you like — can irrefutably be observed to have culminated in the horror of 9/11, the quagmire in Afghanistan, the debacle in Iraq, the fiasco in Libya, the rise of the Islamic State and innumerable other evils, at some point we should stop clapping in unison with their blood-soaked boogie-woogie and cease trusting to their highly questionable wisdom for solutions.

Americans and our European cousins face a stark choice: We can stop letting our political classes try to run the world, or we can keep letting the innocent pay in blood for our politicians’ hubris.

Thomas L. Knapp is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

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PSA: There’s no Such Thing as an “Accidental” Shooting

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Gun photo from RGBStock

At least once a week or so, I read stories about allegedly accidental shootings. These stories always puzzle me, because assuming a competent adult and a non-defective gun, there’s no such thing as an accidental shooting. The two kinds of shootings are “intentional” and “negligent.”

What’s worse is that all too often, these supposed “accidents” involve people who carry guns professionally and have received extensive training in their use. They don’t have recourse to the excuse that they didn’t know what they were doing.

For example, Clayton County, Georgia sheriff Victor Hill was indicted on November 12 for “accidentally” shooting a woman with whom he claimed to be “practicing police tactics.”

In late October, former Austin, Texas police officer Charles Kleinert was granted federal immunity from manslaughter charges for “accidentally” killing a man (he claimed to “only” intended to pistol-whip the guy).

For that matter, a decade or so ago, a DEA agent announced to a room full of students “I’m the only one in this room professional enough that I know of to carry this Glock 40” before “accidentally” shooting himself in the leg. Some professional, huh?

Let’s clear all this “accidental” nonsense up right now. There’s no such thing as an “accidental” shooting. There are only two kinds of shootings: Intentional and negligent.

Look, people: Neither guns nor gun safety are complicated.

The gun is either loaded or it isn’t — and you should always assume that it is. If you don’t, you’re negligent. Period.

If you point the gun at anything you don’t intend to shoot, you’re negligent. Period.

If you leave a loaded gun around where a four-year-old can pick it up and shoot a sibling while playing, you’re negligent. Period.

If you use a gun for some purpose other than the one it was intended for — as a bludgeon, for example — you’re negligent. Period.

Especially, not just “even,” if you are a police officer or a member of the armed forces.

Gun rights activists (yes, I am one) are fond of pointing out that guns don’t kill people, people do. That’s true. It’s true whether the killing is justified or unjustified, and it’s true whether the killing is intentional or negligent.

Negligent shooters  and their supporters need to stop making excuses for negligent shootings. And the 99.9x% of responsible gun owners who take gun safety seriously shouldn’t be tarred with their “accidents.”

Thomas L. Knapp is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

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