Letter to the Editor: Allow campus carry

By Carey Snyder     12/9/15 3:22pm

Dear President Leebron,

As a Rice alum (Physics, M.A. '71, Ph.D. '73), I write to tell you that you and the university have made a mistake.

I understand your thinking on this, in that living in the isolated world of higher education, you might believe that the hedge around the Rice campus provides sufficient protection.

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But the issue is not "must carry". It is to allow those who have been vetted, have a Concealed Handgun License, and have the requisite training, to carry — to actually have in their possession a tool that will allow them to defend themselves should a situation occur similar to Virginia Tech, or the theater in Colorado, or the elementary school at Sandy Hook.

Those were "Gun-Free Zones" — you see how safe that made the people there. Fort Hood, where the Major gunned down a number of soldiers, was also a "Gun-Free zone". The person intent on doing bad is not deterred by th! e sign banning guns - he is in fact encouraged by it, for he knows he will encounter no opposition. In fact, most of the mass shootings have occurred in gun-free zones.

The phrase "Gun-Free Zone" really should be changed to a "Target-Rich Environment".

I suggest that you look and see the number of crimes which have been committed by CHL holders. I think that you would find that it is very, very low, and that allowing carry would significantly increase campus safety. In fact, female students returning to their colleges from the library late at night would probably feel that their safety would be increased if they could carry.

I hope you have not disarmed the campus police also.

One question I have — would one be violating a school rule by being on campus with a weapon in his car? That would effectively be denying him the right to protect himself off campus.

Perhaps you might share, one day, the polls, including how the questions were presented. I would hope so, on that you might re-consider this mistake.

Respectfully submitted,

Carey Snyder

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