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As the debate over campus carry rages in the Lone Star State, a lot has been said about collegiate spree killers at Virginia Tech and elsewhere. By framing the debate on the black swan of death example, neither side seems to “get it.” College campuses are home to all sorts of criminal behavior, from simple theft all the way up to aggravated assault, rape and murder. theranger.org shines a little light on one of the dangers facing San Antonio College students. Specifically (although not exclusively) women. Specifically (although not exclusively) the possibility of falling afoul of a registered sex offender. To wit: “Dr. Robert Vela, vice president of student affairs, said there are seven convicted sex offenders enrolled at this college . . .

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Records Service, there are 11 sex offenders on this campus and 30 sex offenders attending Alamo Colleges aside from Northeast Lakeview College, which is not listed in their records yet . . . Within the 78212 ZIP code surrounding this college, there are 101 registered sex offenders listed.

Not to mention all the local sex offenders who have not been caught, tried and convicted. If this post is any indication, San Antonio College’s attitude towards sex offenders is tolerant to the point of self-delusion. In fact, Vela’s comments remind me of the bit in The Wrong Trousers where Wallace says “Everything is under control”—just before everything goes completely out of control.

Except this is much, much worse. How would you feel if your daughter was enrolled as a Freshman at San Antonio? Would YOU want her to carry a Smith & Wesson 642, per chance? (I’d prefer she’d carry something more substantial, but you get my drift.)

“Sex offenders are here and will continue to be here,” Vela said. “We just need to be proactive and make sure when they are here, they’re here to study and learn and then go home.”

Vela said that student sex offenders can be involved in whatever school activities they desire as long as it does not violate probation, but the college doesn’t have the authority to make the decision. The judge does.

Vela said on campus, students should take precautions and protect themselves against any type of potential danger.

Vela, who does not have a concealed handgun license but owns guns for hunting, said he supports protecting oneself with a gun off campus in students’ vehicles.

So it’s OK to carry OFF campus in your car, but not ON campus? Seriously y’all, armed self-defense is a constitutional right that doesn’t stop at the campus gates. In fact, it sounds like a great place for it to start.

[Chief Don] Adams said no weapons are allowed on campus, but pepper spray is allowed.

“We are not a prison; we are a college,” he said. “We want to give everyone an opportunity for an education.”

Psychology Chair Thomas E. Billimek, Ph.D., said, “As a society, we aren’t sure how to handle persons who have broken the law.”

But he said that it’s not uncommon that sex offenders have been molested themselves.

“We believe in second chances,” Vela said.

Gambling with my daughter’s lives? No thanks. San Antonio is right off the list.

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7 COMMENTS

  1. As a proud father of four Texas daughters, I completely agree. SA is just too close to Austin and those “progressive” thought waves must be traveling farther than I imagined. I’m certainly glad my college-age daughters attend schools in more conservative parts of the state.

    By the way, there is no real “debate” going on about the “campus carry” and “parking lot” laws moving through the legislature. We have super-majorities in both houses this session and these four bills (two in the House and two in the Senate) have more than enough co-authors to become law in September.

    Every day I wake up in this great state, I thank the Lord for so many like minded folks living here in Texas. On our republic’s 175th birthday it’s nice to know that folks here in Texas still understand what freedom means.

  2. In all honesty, college administrators are more dangerous than sex offenders. The former have done more harm than the latter, and very few have never served a day of time.

  3. In the early ’90’s I attended night classes and my professor anfd i we would, escort the ladies to the cars to prevent them from being attacked and raped. Did I carry? You bet! Was I carrying illegal? Yes. They arrested 3 security guards from the college who were committing the crimes. SAC is well known for no parking and dangerous neighborhood. My prof answered one of the ladies who asked if if we were attacked what would happen. He replied “Only if they use a armored personnel carrier would they succeed, and only them after a LOUD argument!

  4. [Chief Don] Adams said no weapons are allowed on campus, but pepper spray is allowed.

    “We are not a prison; we are a college,” he said.

    If I am not mistaken there are no guns on the floor in prison. The only guns are in the towers. The guards only have pepper spray.

  5. If we think about what has happened with these laws, of late, these numbers probably do not point to 11 or 30 violent sex offenders, though some, no doubt, are. I have had a couple of convicted sex offenders in my classes, and both of them were 18 year old young men who had sex with their younger high school girlfriends. The parents did not like the relationships, and they used statutory rape laws to deal with the problem.

    There are enough other troublesome people on campus to make life a bit worrisome (not administrators, by the way), but I question what raw numbers mean without knowing more about the actual crimes that were committed.

    • Spoken like a man who doesn’t have a daughter. Look, I’m aware that laws can be abused. I’ve read the stories of guy’s who’s lives were ruined by parents who falsely accused them of statutory rape and hung a sex-offender tag on them. It’s sad. The law needs revisions. But when it comes to my daughter, I take the position that it’s better to be safe than sorry. By the time she is of college age, my kid will own and practice regularly with a handgun. (She’s a damn good shot right now, with her Ruger 10-22.) And she will NOT attend a school that forbids her to exercise her Constitutional right to defend herself with a firearm.

      You wanna bewail the unfairness of it all, and how some are unjustly labeled. Fine. But when that argument crosses the line to “we have better things to worry about,” I’d ask you to turn that around and say “what about the people that intend to become sexual predators that aren’t on anybody’s radar?” I don’t want my baby girl to be a victim of an experienced rapist OR one that’s a novice. And from where I sit, giving her the tools, experience, and confidence to exercise her 2nd Amendment rights may not be a foolproof solution, but it’s the best one I’ve got.

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