Editor:
While I am not a resident of your state, I feel very strongly about the issue of firearms on campus.
Throughout America, states and localities have enacted statutes that disallow firearms in certain localities such as schools, parks and churches. These statutes create virtual safety zones for the perpetrators of crime who are disposed to seek out and slaughter victims?at will, and in great numbers. What better place than a zone where numerous victims congregate; and who are unable to respond for the several minutes it takes for police to respond with firearms?
When Luke Woodham entered the Pearl, MS High School, armed with a lever action .30 30 deer rifle and started shooting victims, Vice Principal Joel Myrick had to run to his truck and retrieve his handgun while the carnage continued inside.
By the time he got back, Woodham was entering his car and attempted to drive down the road that led to the local junior high school. Myrick pointed the handgun at Woodham who stopped his car. Myrick ordered him out of the car and onto the ground where he held Woodham until police arrived?five minutes later.
Woodham still had 36 rounds of live ammunition. Had Joel Myrick had his firearm on his person, he still would not have been able to save the first two victims, both of whom died. He would have been able, however, to at least distract the shooter from wounding the other seven victims.
Instead, he was sprinting for his car while vital seconds allowed Woodham to continue his rampage.
There is no one closer to the action than the victims; and there is no morally relevant reason that the victims, at the peril of their lives, should be relegated to waiting for men with firearms to respond to the immediacy of their situation?wherever they are.
Jim Peel, Colorado Springs, CO