This Would Make Learning A Real Blast

The Times tells us here today that AZ State Senator Karen S. Johnson…

...has sponsored a bill, which the Senate Judiciary Committee approved last week, that would allow people with a concealed weapons permit — limited to those 21 and older here — to carry their firearms at public colleges and universities. Concealed weapons are generally not permitted at most public establishments, including colleges.

Ms. Johnson, a Republican from Mesa, said she believed that the recent carnage at Northern Illinois University could have been prevented or limited if an armed student or professor had intercepted the gunman. The police, she said, respond too slowly to such incidents and, besides, who better than the people staring down the barrel to take action?

She initially wanted her bill to cover all public schools, kindergarten and up, but other lawmakers convinced her it stood a better chance of passing if it were limited to higher education.

I am almost completely at a loss to respond to the incredible stupidity behind a proposal like this (and a great big raspberry goes out to the Arizona Senate Judiciary Committee as well for this; also, I love Johnson’s rationale that the police “respond too slowly to these incidents” – real appreciation there for the men and women who put their lives on the line for us every day, Senator). Also, I can tell you without a doubt that, though the school attended by the young one has more sense than to allow guns on its premises, we would automatically remove him from enrollment if somehow they ever did.

This Project Vote Smart link tells you that Johnson is a card-carrying wingnut concerning the usual menu of legislation besides this hammerheaded notion as well as their other standard causes (a mother of 11 kids, though – wow). And this from the Lippard blog tells you that Johnson sided with scientology in sponsoring anti-psychiatric legislation, and she of course sees no reason whatsoever to differentiate between church and state, understanding neither the establishment clause in the U.S. Constitution or the even stricter constraints of that observed by her home state.

And from the Times story, we fortunately have the following voice of sanity…

…Cole Hickman, a student at Arizona State University in Tempe, said he had sought to rally opposition to the bill, concerned that, among other things, it would further jeopardize people during a mass shooting. Proponents of the bill, Mr. Hickman said, underestimate the difficulty in shooting a live target in a chaotic episode.

“If another student in the room or a teacher had a gun and opened fire they may hurt other students,” he said, “because unlike police officers, concealed-weapon permit holders are not necessarily well-trained in shooting in crowds and reacting to those kinds of situations.”

And those permit holders include everyone not trained in law enforcement methods, including moonbat state senators.

And I have no doubt that the gun apologists with their minutae of anecdotal evidence are at this moment typing furiously to fend off the pestillence of godless liberals such as your humble narrator in response.