Protecting or restoring a basic civil liberty should never be dismissed on any grounds at all, but I understand that anti-gunners tend to disagree with me on that. They argue against gun rights restoration and use all manner of studies to make their arguments that gun control increases safety. Those studies are garbage, of course, but they exist, and I’d use them if I were an anti-gunner, too.
But what about using a couple of studies to fight back against a proposed law that would restore rights to a lot of people who attend or work at a college or university that doesn’t show any such thing?
In New Hampshire, a couple of college presidents submitted testimony arguing against the state’s proposed campus carry measure, and in it, they cited a couple of studies as evidence that campus carry shouldn’t be a thing. There’s just one problem with their testimony.
President Elizabeth Chilton also took an institutional stance against the law, sending out both a campuswide message and testifying to the state senate judiciary committee. She (pictured) submitted testimony along with Don Birx, president of Keene State College and Plymouth State University, and Mark Collopy, the police chief for UNH.
They said “research from states that have adopted campus carry has found increased fear of crime, lower perceptions of campus safety, and reduced confidence in campus police.”
But neither study found a link to actual crime and campus carry.
One Injury Epidemiology study examined the effects of permissive campus carry laws on violent crime. Contrary to what Chilton said, however, it “does not find significant changes in crime rates” following implementation of such laws and does not provide “clear evidence for a decrease or increase” in major violent crime on public college campuses.
Another cited study from the Journal of School Violence looked only at campus safety perceptions following Georgia’s campus carry law, not at actual crime data at the institutions.
Chilton’s testimony emphasized perception of safety and argued these feelings form a basis for the well-being and senses of security of UNH’s students, faculty, and staff.
In other words, the studies in question were purely about the perception among respondents, not the facts surrounding campus carry. In fact, the one study that looked at the crime statistics found no statistically significant differences one way or another.
When it makes no difference in crime rates, then what is the argument against campus carry at all? Even if you buy into the argument that if gun control makes us safer, shouldn’t evidence of no difference at all suggest that a particular measure is wrongheaded?
And when the hell did we start justifying the curtailment of a constitutionally protected civil right due to people’s feelings and perceptions over cold, hard facts? Hell, even if the facts support curtailing a right, we still don’t do it because they’re rights, for crying out loud.
The kicker is that if feelings and perceptions are the guide star here, then what about those who perceive campus carry as beneficial? What about those who feel safer having a gun on their person? Why do someone else’s feelings matter more?
Now, in fairness to Chilton and her testimony, she doesn’t pretend the studies say something that isn’t true. I’m not trying to imply that she did. She did omit the findings that showed no difference in crime rates, which is a lie by omission in a case like this, but they do show people are uncomfortable with campus carry. Fair enough.
I’d like to point out, though, that with an anti-gun propaganda campus that we call the mainstream media constantly bombarding people with how awful guns are, can we really be surprised that the masses don’t realize that guns aren’t what makes people dangerous or violent? Hell, this is why perceptions and fears cannot be allowed to dictate policy, on this or almost any other issue.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
Help us continue to report on and expose the Democrats’ gun control policies and schemes. Join Bearing Arms VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Read the full article here
