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Ex-VT student fights to keep TX campuses gun-free

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  • ml1209

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    What an idiot.

    Former VT student fights to keep guns off Texas campus | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle




    Former VT student fights to keep guns off Texas campus


    AUSTIN — John Woods sometimes sits in a classroom at the University of Texas and wonders what would happen if somebody walked in and started shooting.

    In April 2007, he was a student at Virginia Tech when his girlfriend and several other people he knew there were gunned down in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Thirty-two people died, plus the gunman.

    There were times when Woods thought that maybe he should get a gun.

    “Then I learned pretty fast that wouldn’t solve anything,” said Woods, who is now a graduate student at UT. “The idea that somebody could stop a school shooting with a gun is impossible. It’s reactive, not preventative.”

    Today, Woods is among the leaders in a fight against bills in the Texas Legislature that would allow licensed concealed gun carriers to take their weapons to school.

    A public hearing is set for Monday in the House Public Safety Committee on one bill, sponsored by Rep. Joe Driver, a Garland Republican.

    Supporters say the bills would protect the rights of those licensed to carry concealed weapons and help prevent a massacre on the scale of what happened at Virginia Tech and another shooting last year at Northern Illinois University, where five were killed and 18 wounded.

    Texas issued 73,090 licenses in fiscal year 2008. The state requires applicants to pass a training course, pass a criminal background check and be at least 21 years old. Texas campuses are gun-free zones.

    “These are individuals who are already licensed and allowed to carry weapons. What marks the imaginary line of college campuses?” said Katie Kasprzak, a recent Texas State University graduate and spokeswoman for Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, a group that claims more than 37,000 members.

    If gunfire erupted on campus, “Would you rather sit and just take shot for shot or would you rather have a chance to fight back?” asked Kasprzak, who has a concealed weapons license.

    State Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, sponsor of the Senate bill, said students, faculty and staff are “sitting ducks” if someone starts blasting.

    “I have no desire to wake up one morning and read in the newspaper, or hear on the radio, or watch on television a news report that 32 Texas college students were gunned down like sitting ducks by some deranged gunman,” Wentworth said.

    Opponents say that if guns are allowed on campus, students and faculty will live in fear of classmates and colleagues, not knowing who might pull a gun over a drunken dorm argument or a poor grade.

    According to the Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence, similar bills have been filed in 18 states since 2008 and all have failed, although lawmakers in a few states are trying again.

    Texas is one of seven states currently considering legislation.

    “We hope Texas will serve as a leader and have a domino effect,” Kasprzak said.

    Of the 150 House members, 70 have signed on in support of Drivers’ bill. In the Senate, 12 of 31 senators signed in support of Wentworth’s bill.

    The idea has met stiff opposition at the University of Texas, which has its own history of shooting violence. Charles Whitman’s 1966 rifle attack from the top of the university tower killed 16 people and wounded dozens more. It was the worst campus shooting until the Virginia Tech bloodbath.

    The UT student government, the graduate student assembly and the faculty advisory council have all passed resolutions against the campus guns bills.

    “It’s a recipe for disaster,” said Brian Malte, state legislation and politics director for the Brady Campaign.

    Woods has helped lead the charge against the bills and filed the student government resolution opposing them.

    Woods, who wore a maroon “Virginia Tech Class of 2007” T-shirt during an interview, said he hasn’t heard from any survivor of the Virginia Tech shooting who supports guns on campus.

    He figures a classroom shooting would be too sudden to stop, even if a student or teacher had a gun.

    “Everything happens too quickly,” Woods said. “You either play dead or you are dead.”
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    cuate

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    According to news today a bunch of Texas Colleges are fighting the bill. Well, they are liberal, look at the news media people that colleges turned out. That ought to tell us something. I have to assume that a majority of Professors are liberals, also ?
     

    wayneside

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    He probably voted for ...change. Criminals or the crazy will do what they want either way...let the law abiding have the ability to defend themselves should something like the VT incident occur. If someone at that VT campus were armed...I'm sure there would have been far fewer casualties.
     

    stockFD3S

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    Most anti-gunners like to ignore the fact that the officers on scene at UT, the worst school shooting prior to VT, were happy that civilians/students had guns.

    Once Whitman began facing return gunfire from the authorities and civilians who had brought out their personal firearms to assist police, he used the waterspouts on each side of the tower as gun ports, allowing him to continue shooting largely protected from the gunfire below but also greatly limiting his range of targets. Ramiro Martinez, an officer who confronted Whitman, later stated in his book that the civilian shooters should be credited, as they made it difficult for Whitman to take careful aim without being hit.[16]

    Charles Whitman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
     

    M. Sage

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    He's college-educated? You wouldn't know it by the way he bases his arguments on emotion instead of logic. Maybe that's why he's still in college instead of out in the real world, doing something.

    I love life-long college students. They have no clue what the real world is like, and it's a shock when/if mommy and daddy decide that they've had enough "education" or their trust fund runs out.
     

    Vellcrow

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    Pflugerville
    "Opponents say that if guns are allowed on campus, students and faculty will live in fear of classmates and colleagues, not knowing who might pull a gun over a drunken dorm argument or a poor grade."


    Isn't this already happening? Apparently, the students and faculty do live in fear...the bad guys have been pulling guns and shooting up places because there is nobody to stop them. Why would anyone in their right mind not want to level the playing field?

    In case he ever reads this: John Woods, you are a complete idiot and have no idea how the real world works. Obama will not save you, and unless you and the other sheep step up and take some proper action, you will fail.
     

    ebk06

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    I agree that students should be allowed to carry a gun on campus. I also agree that the VT student doesn't know or understand the pro gun side of things. To me it sounds like he's a bit of a coward. I'm not saying that to belittle him or to make fun of him either. Some people would rather take their chances rather than even out the playing field. I'm sure what he had to go through really messed him up and he's been fed a lot of misinformation that has swayed his opinion too.
    More than anything I don't think it makes gun owners look good by calling him names or trying to make him look like a fool. Let the anti gunners resort to those kind of tactics. As a group we need to be the "bigger" people and not let emotion consume us but rather throw out facts and data to them. Not everyone will see things our way but being more civil about things will help more than hurt. You never know it may help the neutral thinkers and hopefully some antis side with us.
     

    dee

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    Not positive but I seem to remember hearing at one of the shootings that several people if they had conceled handguns could have defused the situation. But we all know media doesn't focus on that just the negative facts.
     

    Old Man of the Mountain

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    According to news today a bunch of Texas Colleges are fighting the bill. Well, they are liberal, look at the news media people that colleges turned out. That ought to tell us something. I have to assume that a majority of Professors are liberals, also ?

    Based on the University of Texas, I would say that they are!

    I read an article on that in a different Texas "newspaper" (Communist propaganda rag) and they attempted to make it sound as if that kid was an expert.

    It is a shame that he is attending at least his second University, and still does not seem to know or understand much.

    Here is a question for that "expert": How many times have you heard of an armed murderer running into a Police Station and attempting to shoot the armed Police Officers there?

    And another one: Why do you think that such persons always go to a place where it is guaranteed that all the victims are unarmed?

    One last question: Why are you here, don't they still have Universities in Commiefornia?
     

    Old Man of the Mountain

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    The idea has met stiff opposition at the University of Texas, which has its own history of shooting violence. Charles Whitman’s 1966 rifle attack from the top of the university tower killed 16 people and wounded dozens more.

    He got stopped, or else it could have been worse.

    A Police Officer rushed up the stairs and got the drop on him.

    The reason that the Officer was able to scramble across open ground to do that was because a couple of University Students went out to their pick up trucks, got their deer rifles off their gun racks, came back from the safety of the parking lot, and gave some cover fire.

    Even one of the shooting events that the Commies like to use as an excuse to take away our rights, proves that an armed Citizen is an asset to a Society!

    Why do Communists always advocate taking Rights away from Citizens?
     

    Old Man of the Mountain

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    Not positive but I seem to remember hearing at one of the shootings that several people if they had conceled handguns could have defused the situation. But we all know media doesn't focus on that just the negative facts.

    I have heard that folks at the Lubby's shootings and also at the Virginia Tech shootings had legal firearms in their cars, but died unarmed due to laws which favor the criminal, not the innocent victim.

    Whose side should the Law be on?
     

    M. Sage

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    How many times have you heard of an armed murderer running into a Police Station and attempting to shoot the armed Police Officers there?

    I can think of one instance in the US, but it was literally an act of terrorism by black seperatists in the late 60s or sometime in the 70s. And they shot the cop at the front desk and booked out of there, they didn't stick around.
     

    DoubleActionCHL

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    Here is an interesting comment on this article:

    The things you do not know about John Woods.
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    John was NOT on campus during the shooting. He was home in bed asleep. He did not go to the campus for several days. He has no more insight in the shooting then you or I.
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    John Woods was already an anti-gun activist when the shooting occurred. He advocates the total ban of firearms even in private homes. He had previously organized "lay ins" to protest the "gun show loophole."
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    Woods was an organizer for protesteasyguns.com.
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    Woods only started calling Maxine his "girlfriend" after receiving sponsorship from anti-gun groups. Right after the shooting he described Maxine as a "close friend" just like he did other victims.
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    Check him out on his website [url]http://aciel.livejournal.com/[/URL] and you will see what type person he really is. I would tell you but the chronicle does not support freedom of speech.


    Surprise, surprise. Looks like the Barnacle doesn't vet it's sources when they agree with them.
     

    Old Man of the Mountain

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    SelfDefenseBannedinSchools.jpg
     
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