TexasCHLforum.com

boomerang wrote:

"We" argue that the police can not protect everyone and that it is the responsibility of every individual to provide for his/her own defense. Then, in the same breath, "we" make the claim that a few armed CHL Licensees, carrying guns, will make our campuses safe. Think about it - If CHL Licensees will make our campuses safe, the addition of more police would do the same thing.

For the sake of argument, let's suppose more police would do the same thing.

For the price of one campus police officer, we could train (and pay the $140 license fee) for more than one hundred armed students. So, even the "more police" proponents have to admit the university could reduce crime much more cost effectively by providing free CHL classes and subsidizing the CHL fee for students than by hiring more campus police officers.

Interesting point, and a good one.

But I can just hear the collective voice of the anti-gunners saying "but it's much safer to have one extra police officer than 100 crazy people with guns running around"

kd5zex and seamus, two great and very well reasoned posts. I agree that the reason ANYONE should carry a concealed handgun is to protect themselves, their family, and their property. We - as responsible CHL holders - ARE NOT police officers. And insinuating that we think we are or should be just gives "ammo" to the anti-gunners to paint us all as nutjobs. An anti-gunner in my own family sited the 20/20 TV show about "if I had a gun" to try to convince me that it was pointless for me to carry a gun - that I would just get myself killed if I tried to use it. I have not seen the show yet, but it's on my DVR and I plan to watch it. But it took me quite a lot of convincing to assure her that I was not some vigilante who was going to don the cape and "Super Cop" attitude and whip out my handgun to "save the day" for everyone. I don't have the training or skill to take on an armed mass killer with my CCW. But, as seamus said, I WILL BE ALIVE after it's all over and will use my CCW to ensure that I am.

This is not to say that I/we are cowardly in any way. Just reinforces the important idea that a CHL does not make us all LEOs. All of these circumstances require situational forethought and quick thinking/proper action-reaction. There are multiple different "appropriate" responses to multiple different situational scenarios. I would not wander out to confront a mass killer with my CCW, but if I could help to defend a confined space - a classroom or such - from a mass killer (thus saving others) I would do so from a secured defensive position. And if I were to ever encounter a downed LEO, I would do everything in my power to protect that hero from further harm (pulling him/her to safety, calling for help, or staying near his/her side with gun drawn in defensive cover position).

I view a CCW as the ultimate defensive response - sort of like a nice, gentle dog who will bite you if you poke him with a stick. The dog doesn't seek to bite anyone, he's not even a trained "watchdog", but if you insist on poking him with a stick ...