Bans aren’t always bad

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Posted: Tuesday, January 18th, 2011 at 10:36 pm | Last Updated: Tuesday, January 18th, 2011 at 10:36 pm
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When was the last time you needed to fire over 30 rounds of ammunition in a matter of seconds?

The perennial hot-button issue of gun control often misses the point.

“The right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,” states the latter half of the Second Amendment.

But in light of the recent events in Tucson, Ariz., we have to ask why a citizen would ever need to legally own a high-volume magazine of ammunition. Jared Lee Loughner, 22, who killed six and wounded 14, was allegedly carrying a Glock 19 that could hold 33 rounds.

True, Loughner has been deemed mentally unstable, but really: Why would anyone need to fire that many rounds so quickly? The only reason would be to take human life.

A 1994 assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004, prohibited such clips.

Now the national debate has turned to whether Congress will again pass similar legislation.

It is not a partisan issue; it’s an issue of human life.

While there are national and state laws that apply to every citizen when it comes to gun control, the campus debate is a whole different story.

State laws allow gun owners to openly carry legally registered firearms, but licensed individuals are prohibited from carrying concealed weapons in college classrooms and dorms. Bills were introduced in 2009 in the Michigan House and Senate to amend Senate Bill 747 to remove those areas from the list of prohibited premises.

Oakland University Police Chief Samuel Lucido said it’s a matter of local control, and we agree.

While the bills are stalled, Lucido believes a new Michigan legislature will most likely act on them.

According to Lucido, firearms of any sort are prohibited from campus.

While organizations like OU Students for Concealed Carry on Campus advocate for the passage of the bill and oppose infringement of the right to carry firearms, we believe the rules in place at OU are correct.

Colleges and universities are first and foremost a learning environment. Campus security and safety are priorities for all, especially the administration and police department.

OUPD has training and equipment in place to immediately respond to emergency situations including shooting incidents like those that occurred at Columbine High School and Virginia Tech.

Lucido said the OUPD is equipped and hopes to do their “best to be prepared for any emergency — to respond to any emergency event.”

The university has made its stance on the gun issue clear and Lucido echoes those sentiments.

“OU believes our rules regulating firearms are correct,” Lucido said.

His claim is backed up, too.

A recent Virginia Supreme Court decision unanimously ruled that a ban on guns in buildings and at campus events at George Mason University does not indeed violate the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

We hope that national bans on unnecessary weapons are considered again — and this time stay in place.

EMU


  • Joseph Corlett

    Is it anyone else’s business how many people my vehicle holds as long as I operate my vehicle safely within the laws? Is it anyone else’s business as to how often I write letters to the editor of my school or local paper? Why then, do the nanny-staters and the Oakland Post feel the need to tell this law-abiding Michigan Concealed Pistol licensee how many rounds are appropriate for his magazine? I’ll make that decision, thank you very much. (And it’s a magazine, not a “clip”.)

    I strongly suggest the editors take logic and/or a psychology class. You will learn that correlation is not causation and this knowledge will keep you from making nonsensical claims that the availability/capacity of handguns has something to do with mental illness. The Michigan summer seasonal increase in drowning has a direct positive correlation to increased ice cream sales. Eating ice cream does not cause drowning.

    Since you like correlation, here’s one for you: In spite of soaring gun sales, according to the FBI, there is a 10.5% decrease in the murder rate since the so-called “assault weapons” ban expired in 2004, leaving our murder rate at a 45-year low. According to the BATFE only 0.18% of violent crime utilized an “assault weapon”. Restricting the constitutional rights of legal gun owners to preclude the actions of the insane is like restricting automobile sales to the sober to prevent drunk driving.

    You ask if congress will reinstate the “assault weapons” ban. They will not and here’s why: It is political death for Democrats. That isn’t only my opinion, former president Bill Clinton has said the “Assault Weapons” ban cost him the congress in 1996.

    While I appreciate the efforts of the OUPD to keep students safe, they are under no legal obligation to do so according to the United States Supreme Court in Castle Rock v. Gonzales, 2005. Virginia Tech type incidences would be much less likely if students were allowed to defend themselves. The insane aren’t necessarily stupid.

    You stated : “State laws allow gun owners to openly carry legally registered firearms, but licensed individuals are prohibited from carrying concealed weapons in college classrooms and dorms.” True enough, but according to the Michigan State Police in their Legal Update No. 86:” MCL 28.425o provides that a person with a valid CPL shall not carry a concealed pistol in a pistol free zone (college dorm or classroom). Note: the above statute applies to CPL holders carrying a concealed pistol. If the CPL holder is carrying non-concealed, the statute does not apply.”

    If OUPD Chief Lucido believes “our rules regulating firearms are correct”, he hasn’t spoken with Victor Zambardi, Vice President Oakland University General Council, who, along with OUPD Campus Police Lieutenant Mel Gilroy, found that OU’s firearms ordinance “did not comport with state statute”. Lieutenant Gilroy told me this in person and the Oakland Post was provided this information last semester. How sad you deny this critical balance to readers.

    Perhaps Chief Lucido will don his investigatory cap as to the recent dismissal without prejudice of a concealing a handgun charge against a Wayne State University student. The State’s contention was that the student was carrying in a pistol free zone; the student’s defense was that the hallway is not a PFZ. The judge found that the State’s case had no legal standing. Chief Lucido is bound by Michigan rulings and law and is not “backed up” by the Supreme Court of Virginia.

    I hope Oakland University institutes a ban on poorly reasoned and researched editorials and that the ban stays in place.

    http://www.nraila.org/legislation/federal/read.aspx?id=5857

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/11/9/122912/597

    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/politics/28scotus.html

  • Kelly

    Will the “unnecessary weapons” ban apply to law enforcement and military as well? I’m not sorry to tell you, but there are legitimate uses for such high-capacity magazines. Many, many people already have these for sport, for recreational use, for fun, or for their job – and they have not killed anyone with them. You have, unfortunately, fallen victim to the same thought process as others – one that does not rely on logic, only a knee-jerk emotional response. It was not the high-capacity magazine that allowed this man to kill so many. He could have killed the same with multiple 10-round “clips”. Considering that a spring failure on the second magazine limited the loss of life, he may well have killed more. Instead of focusing on the true tragedy here – that a man with a mental illness went unnoticed and undiagnosed – you have focused on inconsequential things that would have had no effect whatsoever. The Assault weapons ban not only will have no effect in preventing such events from happening again, it is detrimental in that it shifts attention away from the true problems.

  • Joseph Corlett

    Here is a video demonstration of Kelly’s point:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oURZ3LxYhIY&t=1m50s