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by srothstein
Fri Jun 18, 2010 7:26 pm
Forum: Concealed Carry on College Campuses
Topic: Central Texas College (next to Fort Hood)
Replies: 11
Views: 2382

Re: Central Texas College (next to Fort Hood)

As a recently retired LEO, I will tell you that I honestly think this argument is not valid. I have never yet had any problem telling the good guys from the bad guys on calls, even when I went to crime in progress calls where some citizens had responded to try to help. And given the time I would expect police to take to respond, this is even less of an argument.

Consider the times really involved. Someone busts in and starts shooting. One of the students will call 911. Campus police do not get 911 calls, but have their own emergency numbers (ask any student on here if they know the campus emergency number). This takes 1 minute to get the call in and answered. The police dispatcher takes the information and puts the calls out to officers to respond. This takes another minute (might be a little quicker, but say 2 minutes from the person dialing 911 to the call hitting the radio). The officers take a couple minutes to drive to the scene. Most agencies strive for a 3 minute response time for this type of high priority call, so it will average 5 minutes from the time someone starts to dial until the first officer arrives at the scene. Current LEO philosophy has the officers wait until a four man stick arrives (first four cops), but some will go in as a pair. This slows up the response further.

Now, look at what happens with the CHL's at the scene. Most do nothing since they are just trying to protect themselves. They will run away if the shooter is not in their room or hallway. They can be discounted. If there is one in the room where the shooter is, he will probably engage and take action immediately. Shoot-outs do not last long, in most cases. And even worse, most active school shooters suicide when they encounter resistance. So, by the time the cops get there, there will probably be a dead shooter on the ground and a CHL standing over him with a gun. The gun may have already been put away, but assume he is still holding it. The cops do not bust in shooting, but give commands to drop the gun and surrender. The CHL will almost always obey these commands. This makes it easy to sort out the good guys from the bad guys.

There is a distinct possibility that the CHL may be in shock from the shooting and may not respond correctly to the officers. Hopefully some of the other people will be helping him, but this cannot be counted on either. This is the only point where the officer may have some trouble, but even then, the CHL will not be shooting at the cops and can usually be identified. They may need to take him down or something, but they still do not bust in shooting.

And that is always without counting the odds of a CHL even being there. Given that there are only about 3% of the population with CHL's, it means a class of 33 would be required before the odds would favor a CHL being there. With the number of under 21 mixed in, the class would need to be even larger. A community college that caters towards the non-traditional adult student might have a slightly higher chance of having a CHL. But, the class in Killeen would also have a much higher chance of having combat trained vets in it from Ft. Hood. Are the police really afraid of the military having CHL's? Somehow, that makes less sense than most schools' arguments.

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