Get News & Views Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Now Arizona Wants to Allow Concealed Guns on Campuses
Arizona's weak gun laws could reach a new low this spring.
When the Arizona state legislature reconvenes today for the first day of the new session, two gun bills will be on the table for debate.
One bill--H2001--will allow faculty members to carry concealed weapons on campus.
The other bill--H2014--will prevent educational institutions from stopping a person from carrying a weapon with a valid permit.
In the blazing summer of 2009, Gov. Jan Brewer passed a law that allows Arizona residents to carry concealed weapons into bars and restaurants that serve alcohol.
Last spring, Brewer took Arizona one step further when she signed the "Firearm Freedom Act" that permits certain weapons and ammunition manufactured in Arizona to be sold without following any federal registration or regulations.
Brewer declared: "Politicians in Washington should not attempt to get between Arizonans and their constitutional rights."
More infamously, Brewer also signed another bill last April that allows Arizonans to carry concealed guns without a permit.
In the case of the tragic Tucson shooting yesterday, alleged assailant Jared Loughner fired 31 shots from a Glock 9-millimeter, a semiautomatic pistol he purchased legally in Tucson.
Pima County Sheriff Clarent Dupnik has been a long-time critic of the bill to allow weapons on campus. In a 2008 oped for the Tucson Citizen, he recalled a fatal shooting incident on the University of Arizona campus that led to chaos. Dupnik wrote: "Enacting legislation to allow people to carry concealed weapons on school campuses is not the solution to this problem. The reality is that such actions will further endanger innocent bystanders in these situations."
Nearly a year ago, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence ranked Arizona as one of the weakest states in the country for gun control. The Brady Campaign gave Arizona only two points on a scorecard of 100.
"Since Arizona does not require Brady criminal background checks on all firearm sales, including those at gun shows, gun traffickers don't need to leave the state to funnel illegal guns to felons and gang members," said Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Campaign. "Arizona officials have done nothing in the past year to stop the flow of illegal guns within the state, including closing the loophole that allows dangerous people to walk into gun shows and buy guns without background checks.""Passing any one of these proposals would make the state even more dangerous," Hildy Saizow, Executive Director of Arizonans for Gun Safety, warned last year. "At a time when citizens are deeply concerned about budget cutbacks and jobs, this legislature is placing priorities on easing gun laws where there is little or no public support."
For state Rep. Daniel R. Patterson (D-Tucson), a gun owner and hunter, and an NRA member who earned a B-rating from the gun organization, the debate over H2001 bill to allow concealed weapons on campus "is a decision better made by regents and university presidents. They are in a much better position to decide what is safe." Patterson added: "I oppose this political meddling from the capital on campuses across the state. We need to get serious about balancing the budget and getting Arizona's economy on track."
Will Gov. Brewer and the state legislature listen now--or continue Arizona down the path of gun violence?
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
162 Comments so far
Show AllOh, horse crap. you pay the lowest tax rates in the freaking free world, and you want to bitch? Some of the European countries pay 75%, and you want to BITCH? And if you're rich, you pay even less. And don't even talk to me about the tax rates that big business actually PAYS. You DO know that 75% of fortune 500 companies pay NOTHING to this country, right? And you want to bitch about taxes.
Take your head out, please.
Indeed Darren. The amount of money this country spends on wars of foreign aggression and imperialistic rampages is mind boggling. Half of every tax dollar is spent on military. Think about it. Two occupations, drone bombing in five countries, school of Americas, military aid to nations in the guise of the war on drugs, military bases in 147 different countries, helicopters, jets, outhouses with air conditioners, the list is endless. Whatever happened to the old conservative who not only railed against high taxes but also cast a jaundiced eye upon imperialistic endeavors of war and occupation? Gone, long gone. If any of them had a principled corpuscle in their body, they would be screaming as loud as our jailed anti-war activists. It's the double whammy of high taxes on the working class coupled with virtually no return on their investment. Money goes in, nothing comes out. Drive down the road and marvel at the decay of infrastructure if you doubt this fact.
You are right, it is not just the gun industry. It is big business as whole that has wrested the levers of power away from the people. Those wars of foreign aggression are padding someones pockets. At the end of the money trail sits a CEO of a defense industry company raking in the billions. Corporate welfare is out of control. One only witness the multi-TRILLION dollar bailout of the banking industry. The US Constitution? Shredded and recycled as we watch insurance executives craft law which forces Americans to purchase their shoddy products. Think auto insurance and health insurance as cases in point. Think about that Darren. The government now forces people by law to buy private goods and services. You would think that conservatives would be popping a gasket. Let us not forget the SCOTUS which has granted corporations the rights of living, breathing people. Looking at the gun industry, they are raking in billions in profits as they dump millions of guns upon this society. Saturated to the point that stark raving lunatics have no problem purchasing assault grade weaponry with nary a bead of sweat, the American people are no match for the millions of dollars of lobby cash funneled to our criminal "representatives". Unregulated and out of control, we have become the industrialized version of Afghanistan. Our Talibani wear leather miniskirts and hunt moose from helicopters, they talk about hope and change and hire criminal banksters to regulate criminal banskters. In their heart of hearts, they are the same cruel animal. When is enough, enough?
"Dude, he gave me a fricken D."
Do they issue permits for nunchucks or katanas?
Silly me ... it's only *concealed* weapons that you need a permit for. No doubt it's perfectly legal to go to class in full armour with a broadsword.
Why o why o why do presumptively sensible, good-hearted people continue to play the authoritarians' game by claiming some tool is the problem?
Anyone who thinks the tool is the problem need look no further than Britain since Dunblane: increasingly draconian laws against the possession of objects with no reduction in the actual problem.
Once upon a time we understood that violence nearly always comes from a lack of other choices. What happened to make so many so stupid now?
Or is it that they're shilling for the nervous ruling class?
They outlawed guns, so only outlaws have guns. And they're going to prison. You should too.
A concealed hand gun and a mentally imbalaced citizen was the cause of the violence and death in Arizona.
Obviously Right To Carry Laws are flawed.
We are and will always be a gun culture.
2nd Amendment.
I see the predictable call for gun control around here. Let's take a look at prohibitions for a moment. Drugs are illegal so no one can get any drugs, right? We know that's not the case. Prostitution is illegal there are no prostitutes, right? No, they're around. So does it really follow that by making guns illegal there will be no guns? No, it doesn't.
Let's also look at other countries. When they banned guns in the UK & Australia crime went up:
Gun Control's Twisted Outcome
Restricting firearms has helped make England more crime-ridden than the U.S.
http://reason.com/archives/2002/11/01/gun-controls-twisted-outcome
darrenlobo, completely agree, and I will add. To all who state that the right to carry laws are flawed... who follows the right to carry laws? The law abiding citizen? The person who intends to do harm? Does the person that intends to do harm care about any laws? NO!
Absolutely zero gun control laws would have stopped this tragedy from happening. Let me explain, lets say you want to ban all guns, you get the law passed and tell everyone they have to turn in their guns. Who is going to turn their guns in? The law abiding citizen? Probably 80%-90% would. The person who intends to do harm now or in the future? I would say less than 5%. Now you have a situation where the criminals know that the chances of someone else having a gun are very low.(UK & Australia)
Statistics are not kept on how many crimes are prevented or stopped by an armed law abiding citizen. Is it newsworthy(infotainment) enough for the local news? No, not as shocking as the news of a crime that was committed. Most people do not realize that the police, more often than not, do not prevent crime or show up while it is happening, they show up after the fact and try to gather evidence about the situation. This is especially true of gun crimes. This is a common thread among gun control advocates "the police will be there to protect me" I got news for you, 99% of the time they will show up after the crime has been committed. The other 1% are what you see on the TV "COPS"
If it were possible to wave a magic wand or use some special satellite to find and remove all guns from every citizen I would say lets do it. But this is fantasy, there are too many guns out there to remove them all with LAWS!
Sensible gun laws? Sure, most states require carry permit holders have a background check that is equal to law enforcement. Most have an eight hour class, is this enough? Increase it to 40 hours. Close the gun show loop hole, which by the way is just two private citizens purchasing from each other at the gun show instead of else were. Maybe disallow private sales all together? All sales go through an FFL dealer(background check required) that would always put the serial number with the owner.
Just remember, that all of the above will not keep guns out of the hands of bad people or people that turn bad. All the criminal needs is someone that meets the above criteria, purchase the guns and sell to them "illegally". This would go on until a gun purchased was used in a crime "and caught".
Maybe when all humans can divorce themselves from our sub-conscious animal like behaviors and our emotional attachments to "sound bites" that support "our side", we will be able to confront the problems as a whole, taking in all of the variables, to come up with solutions that allow personal freedoms as well as benefits to society that allow further improvements for mankind.
DarrenLobo,
I think that you should reconsider your comments about the UK being more crime ridden than the US. What type of crime are you talking about? I am fifty three years old, and talking to my friends and work mates, none of us has ever seen or heard a gun being discharged in public, and we do not know anyone who has been a victim of gun crime. Who in the US can claim the same facts as I have put before you? There are an average of 30,000 gun deaths each year in the US, which would equate to some 6000 in the UK if the figures were scaled down. We have less than 50 gun deaths each year in a population of around 60 million.
So, before you start trying to make assertions about other countries, please get your facts straight.
You have a problem with guns in the US, and like some of your fellow posters have pointed out (the sane ones), each time there is another massacre, the gun lobby decides that guns are the answer. The problem is, that this mindset exists in the foreign policy of the US, in that your politicians think that any problem can be solved by bombing and killing people.
DarrenLobo,
I think that you should reconsider your comments about the UK being more crime ridden than the US. What type of crime are you talking about? I am fifty three years old, and talking to my friends and work mates, none of us has ever seen or heard a gun being discharged in public, and we do not know anyone who has been a victim of gun crime. Who in the US can claim the same facts as I have put before you? There are an average of 30,000 gun deaths each year in the US, which would equate to some 6000 in the UK if the figures were scaled down. We have less than 50 gun deaths each year in a population of around 60 million.
So, before you start trying to make assertions about other countries, please get your facts straight.
You have a problem with guns in the US, and like some of your fellow posters have pointed out (the sane ones), each time there is another massacre, the gun lobby decides that guns are the answer. The problem is, that this mindset exists in the foreign policy of the US, in that your politicians think that any problem can be solved by bombing and killing people.
You have to understand something about these gun nut True Believers: there isn't a problem with guns that can't be solved with even MORE guns.
No student with any concern for their personal safety should even consider a college in AZ. Don't think of it as a state. Think of it as a shooting gallery.
Every constituency has its political advocacy group. For mass murderers, armed robbers, political assassins, and assorted other violent criminals, it's the NRA.
Hey, Jeff stay with something which is worthwhile to stop: Mountain top removal to mine coal.
You want to equate ownership of firearms and criminal intent. You can't, logically.
Firearm ownership, and use is a personal right. Get over it.
Well, actually, by comparison, UK and Aus gun-crime rates are FAR below the US; have been for decades. Of course there's high-gun owning Canada that also has a low gun crime rate - but interestingly lacks the 2nd amendment/gun fetishism of the US.
Maybe the AZ leg should name the bill the "Jared Loughner Concealed Weapons Freedom Act of 2011". Or the "No Student Left Unarmed" bill. Or the "Glock in Every Locker" bill. When tweeting they could call it the "Jay-Lo Academic Equalizer Act"! Imagine the food fights! Wow! That's one way sort out over-enrolled programs and classes. Now everybody (who is still walking) can definitely graduate in 4 years, no problem!
And BTW - why "concealed"? Why not just holster up and get it over with? If the gun industry is right and concealed weapons prevent crime, wouldn't openly carried arms prevent even more?
the "Jared Loughner Concealed Weapons Freedom Act of 2011"
There ya go. Require every person diagnosed with mental illness to pack major heat. Starting with the AZ legislature.
Next the gun nuts will be demanding that imprisoned criminals must have the Right to Bear Arms.
Hey, it's an "absolute right", isn't it? They have the right to see their lawyers, don't they? And don't criminals in prison have to defend themselves too?
Think about it. Crime in rampant in the prisons. So the only way prisons are ever going to be safe for the inmates is to arm all the convicts.
It makes perfect sense - but only if you're a rabid wingnut. This is how they think.
Jared Lee Loughner is just the tip of a rotten angry iceberg called lax gun laws and right wing hate speech.
So we need to ban guns and ban dissenting speech.
How utterly progressive...
Another great American coming out in full force support of hate speech and corporate gun manufacturer profits. How utterly regressive...
You would think the mothers of America would take a serious look at net nanny software and spare us the wisdom of their pimple faced children.
Not at all. The NRA calls gun ownership an "absolute right" which cannot be infringed under any circumstances. You go argue with them. Wear kevlar.
Ask the survivors of Littleton/Columbine how they feel about guns in school... or the Texas U Clock Tower sniper... or these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shooting (going back to 1966, but the vast majority happening in the last ten or so years... hmm... the same ten or so years a knee jerk, hyperviolent, gun obsessed society has been feeling especially persecuted)
Non Serviam - I will not serve.
Galen...
Very well said.
I guess the shooters must have missed the memo about schools being "gun free zones".
Meanwhile, you might want to ask the survivors of the below incidents what THEY think about law abiding gun owners in schools: (Go ahead, ask them. They are, after all, still alive, unlike the victims of "gun free zone" shootings.)
Pearl (MS) High School, September, 1997: two killed, seven wounded; also stabbed mother to death. Incident was stopped by armed principal.
Parker Middle School dance, Edinboro PA, 1998; one killed, two wounded. Incident was stopped by armed party venue owner.
Appalachian School of Law, Grundy VA, 2002; three killed, three wounded. Incident was stopped by a team of three students, one armed.
If you want to include church shootings, the New Life Church in Colorado Springs in 2007; two killed, one wounded. Incident was stopped by an armed civilian volunteer.
Would any of those events ever happened had we gun control and a citizenry not in need of Freudian titillation provided by guns?
Watched some talking head on TV last night boast about how the crime rate has gone down in the last few decades. The whole panel was unable to point out to this rube that the demographics have changed and the baby boomer generation is no longer of prime crime age. No mention of record prison populations, our missions of mass murder abroad. His basic message was: "Nothing to see here folks. Move along."
Dear Jaysus, this horrible event really brings out all the gun nut apologists and right wing trolls. AZ has some of the most lax and "liberal" gun laws in the nation and this slaughter happened any how. Can't blame liberals for this one, AZ is a hard right wing state where the gun freaks reign supreme. These gun jerks who post here are the problem, they enable and abet the loose cannons and mentally unstable psychopaths who can get guns legally in AZ.
"These gun jerks who post here are the problem, they enable and abet the loose cannons and mentally unstable psychopaths who can get guns legally in AZ."
You mean politicians?
Wow- them Arid zone peeps shole is some stoopid azz hoes.
In the old days, when some lunatic would go clock tower, we would usually have a couple of days where people would consider gun control laws. Those days are long gone. Now we have just the opposite. Everyone talks about the greater need to be packing heat. Things are bad and getting worse.
In the "old days," we had communities and social control within those communities. Today, if someone chastises a rude or wayward youth, one risks being arrested or sued.
Jared was clearly mentally dysfunctional, but no one had the power to see to it for his treatment and care. Now, society is paying for this lack of political will to take care of fellow citizens. Corporations have convinced the political system that preventative options would cause too much.
We can thank the legal profession for turning socially responsible behavior into a dysfunctional punishment.
Hi Rat,
Whilst I agree with Shakespeare in regards to lawyers, we certainly can't lay all the blame at their feet. As Marx pointed out, we have become an alienated and disconnected society. Who would bother to chastise a youth these days, let alone contribute and be a positive role model. As ShadowDancer points out, we're too busy paying our bills and dying to be bothered. Heaven forbid someone bother me whilst I zip through the computerized checkout at the grocery store. And I'm packing a Glock just to make sure that someone doesn't bother me.
The criminal justice system in this country is truly a reflection of this ugliness. Rehabilitation isn't even on the radar. Not only does the system do a helluva job at training these people to become better criminals, it tends to further traumatize and damage people. Mental healthcare in this country has become nothing more than profit centers for the healthcare industry. As a case in point, anyone who has gone through or has had a loved one go through addiction rehab realizes how broken the system is.
Guns in America are nothing more than a reflection of age old capitalist schemes at work. Think about opium addiction in China and British profits as a case in point. The gun industry wants nothing more than to create an atmosphere of fear and this self-perpetrating scheme is working wonders. The profits are massive and the power they wield is impressive. After Brady was shot, the debate became lively. Fast forward to 2011 and nary a whisper heard about gun control in the MSM after this heinous crime. In fact, just the opposite. Much screaming and chest thumping about allowing these assault weapons onto campuses. Capitalism, for what it is worth, will always place profits before people, money and misery before general welfare. We are spiraling into the corporate fascist abyss, make no mistake.
The challenge before us is for a disconnected society to disconnect from this culture of death and suffering and reconnect with community. No small feat ahead.
Brady will never get anywhere in there attempt to control gun violence, because they are not credible. First, they lie.
All firearm sales from a Federal Firearms Licensed dealer are required to submit background checks before approval of the sale.
Second, private sales of firearms are not regulated.
Because of the second, I propose that any denial of a sale from a FFL originating firearm should be argued in court. This hearing should require that the state prove the person can be held criminally responsible for any misuse of the firearm.
Even ex felons should have the constitutional right to own, and possess f
firearms after a period of good behavior.
What is really wrong with the USA is that the political, economic, and social systems are all oppressive and dysfunctional. As a result the USA has the largest absolute and rate of prison incarceration in the world. Something is very wrong here.
Correct these and you remake our society for the better.
A violence-prone nation that just plain refuses to learn!Just leave the rest of the world alone.
Vera,
Every nation is Violence Prone and the world has billions of people. Crime happens everywhere and guns don't kill people, People kill people.
This has nothing to do with gun laws and has everything to do with a psychopath.
No matter what law is in place in either the future or the past, people will die of violence all over the world. Forgive those who wish to protect themselves in this world full of evil.
So why do you think the USA has more pyschopaths then all those other nations.?
If it was simply a case of being "mentally ill" all countries would see the same rates of gun crimes and mass killings.
While all countries have such some have more then others and some exponentialy more.
Are you suggesting Citizens in the USA are genetically predisposed to being psychopaths when compared to those in Japan? Are you stating the US as a country is just more evil? If so why?
Are you suggesting there more psychopaths in the US because of diet, or the enviroment?
Is it societal?
Which is it? Your arguement does not stand the test.
Arizona has gone off the deep end. They are breeding a culture of violence and fear by passing these ridiculous gun laws.
Who are we protecting ourselves from by buying guns? Some completely imagined threat of "evil".
I am starting to wonder about the sanity of Arizona's government. They don't seem to be capable of rational decision making lately and it is further tarnishing this country's image. Is it possible to revoke their statehood for bad behavior?
Q. Are they nuts in AZ, or what?
A. Silly question.
I've never owned a gun. Living in the bad area of Norwich, CT, my wife, son, and I came home to see DEA agents running around our apartment building with guns drawn and dogs out. We moved to a safer neighborhood the following month.
Although I disagree with the need to walk around with a concealed weapon, I do understand that there are certain times people would "feel" safer for having them.
Is there truly a solution to any of this?
Society wants guns )))Some people in society are imbalanced ))) Some imbalanced people will get guns.... is the equation that simple? Is there any law that could be passed on a federal level that would curtail things like this from happening?
Frankly my problem with understanding this whole issue starts at the point of the need to defend yourself. Why do Americans feel that they have to defend themselves all the time from everyone? I live in Australia now and while on the whole people are more aggressive here then back where I'm from and there are plenty of violent home invasions happening, some murders, road rage etc. I don't feel like I have to constantly be prepared to be attacked, I don't feel I need a gun to defend myself and my possessions. Nor do I think that Australians feel this way. So why do the US Americans? What's wrong with your society that isn't wrong with others?
It's a national psychosis called schizophrenic-paranoia. Why? Probably too much of everything.