Last week there was yet another school shooting, this time at Northern Illinois University. A student killed seven students before belatedly shooting himself. The Libertarian Party of Georgia extends condolences to the families of the victims, and to the confused and anguished family of the killer.
The Libertarian Party of Georgia suggests a simple policy change that would reduce the likelihood of such attacks: allow faculty, staff, and even students who hold valid concealed weapons permits to have their weapons with them at school. When the nation of Israel implemented this policy, terrorist attacks against Israeli schools ended.
School shootings end in one of two ways. Either the killer commits suicide, or a good guy shows up with his own gun. Sometimes it’s the police; sometimes it’s an armed citizen, like Vice Principal Joel Myrick, who confronted the student who had just killed two students and wounded seven others at Pearl High School in Mississippi in 1997.
Federal law and regulations in Georgia and most other states now forbid the presence of citizen firearms on school property. These laws are a terrible mistake for two reasons: first, they focus on guns instead of on killers who misuse guns; and second, they create ‘gun free’ zones where a would-be attacker knows he will meet no effective resistance.
Guns are tools, just like hammers and automobiles. Tools are inanimate objects with no volition or mobility. Only a human being can turn a tool into a weapon. A free society doesn’t outlaw pencils because kidnappers use them to write ransom notes. Likewise a free society should not ban guns because less than 1% of them are misused by criminals.
Would you put a sign in your front yard that said “The owner of this property is unarmed”? Probably not, because it’s obvious that opportunistic burglars would smell easy pickings. Yet America’s national policy about guns in schools is the equivalent of that front yard sign, only the words are “gun free school zone.”
The Libertarian Party of Georgia platform states “We affirm the 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms belongs to individuals.” We recognize the handgun as the tool that allows a 95 pound woman to protect herself against a 200 pound rapist. We note Dr. Gary Kleck’s research that shows guns are used far more often to resist attack than to perpetrate one. And we point out that warnings of ‘wild-west gunfights in the streets’ voiced by anti-gunners every time a jurisdiction reduces the restrictions on citizen ownership and use of firearms ALWAYS have proven to be wrong.
Why do Georgia and the federal government resist the common-sense solution of allowing licensed armed citizens in schools? The reason is a condition called hoplophobia – the irrational belief that an inanimate object possesses its own intent. Too many politicians are convinced guns are a problem, even though the same politicos always are accompanied by armed bodyguards.
We also note that politicians’ distrust of armed citizens fits with their distrust of individuals doing anything without the expressed permission or requirement of government. Both are examples of an anti-individual, anti-freedom mindset that is a constant threat to liberty in America.
It is the opinion of the Libertarian Party of Georgia that current state and federal laws prohibiting firearms possession on school property are the reason school shootings have become so frequent, and are the reason why their body count is so high. Politicians who force their hoplophobia on the body politic have a lot of blood on their hands. They should be held accountable in the voting booth.
