“We sometimes think our duty is to make everyone safe. It’s to preserve liberty. It’s not to make a society that’s absolutely safe.” That from Idaho state Sen. Jim Rice (above), speaking on the passage of a bill that would allow concealed weapons on college campuses in Idaho. He went on to say that coddling people on campus wasn’t his job. It was his job, he said, to preserve freedoms. The bill was voted out of the Senate Tuesday 25-10. The bill now goes to the House, where a similar bill passed in 2011, only to fail in the Senate. The current bill is expected to pass, and Gov. Butch Otter has pledged to sign it when it reaches his desk. The previous bill failed. . .
in the Senate due to concerns about a lack of training and access by students who had been drinking. The new bill addresses those concerns by limiting carry to only retired law enforcement [natch!] and holders of Idaho’s enhanced carry permit, which requires an 8-hour training class and firing 98 rounds every five years. The intoxication concerns were alleviated by banning guns in dorms and stadiums, and adding in harsher penalties for those who carry while intoxicated or high. Boise Police Chief Mike Masterson, along with the presidents of all eight of Idaho’s public colleges and universities spoke out against the bill earlier this month, citing safety concerns and fiscal impacts, but the writing was on the wall. Go back and read that lead quote again. That guy gets it.
Your Lockdown of the Day™ comes from Houston, Texas, where reports of an active shooter put Eickenroht and Hoyland elementary schools on lockdown. It seems an off-duty Homeland Security agent was inside a home under construction as a potential buyer when a window shattered right next to him. When he looked out, he saw a man holding what looked like a high-powered rifle with a telescopic sight, so he called police. It turned out to be a neighbor to the home, an Iraq war veteran, who had accidentally fired a shot into the window while shooting target practice with an air rifle. Several dozen police vehicles, including an armored truck and SWAT, descended on the neighborhood and investigated, taking the 25-year-old man into custody. He now faces criminal mischief charges, and his wife reports that “He is in the dog house for a long, long time. He sure is.”
Back in December I told you about the Civilian Marksmanship Program’s Advanced Maintenance Classes for the M1 Garand. Unfortunately, all of the 2014 dates were sadly sold out at the time. The CMP has now announced an online M1 Maintenance Clinic, to be held February 25th (that’s a Tuesday) at 10 a.m. EST. It will last approximately 90 minutes, costs $25, and is limited to 100 participants. The course will include video instruction, an instant-message-based interaction format, and a Q&A at the end. Check the link above for more info, system requirements, and how to sign up. [NB: When I found the announcement and wrote this Monday night, there were still slots available. Unfortunately, I checked again on Tuesday afternoon and it was sold out. However, they will be announcing dates for additional courses soon, and I will let you know as soon as I see them.]
G-Outdoors has introduced a new line of handgun carry cases under the name of Deceit & Discreet. The handgun cases are designed to allow you to have your gun within easy reach without being obvious about it. There are currently seven designs in the line, including a pair of day planners, a couple first aid kits, and a triangular roadway hazard marker pouch. Because they were only introduced at SHOT, I was unable to find them at any of my “usual suspects” online outlets yet, but The Firearm Blog says CTD has the medium first aid kit listed at $21.11. I’d wait ’til someone else has them, if I wanted one.
A student at Fayetteville (NC) High School has been disciplined after bringing an ammunition clip [sic] to school on Tuesday. The District spokesman said he didn’t know what kind of ammunition clip [sic] it was, but that administrators had “responded swiftly” and there was no real danger. The story makes no mention of any actual ammunition, but the headline says “Student Busted With Ammo.” The student was narc’d out by another student who learned of the clip and informed a teacher.
Demolition Ranch’s .50-cal Friday, on Wednesday! This time they go after an old Nissan V6 block with .50 FMJ and API.
I’m actually surprised that API didn’t do more damage. I’d definitely be trying to get that connecting rod out of there. It’d make a nice conversation piece.
He’s in the doghouse now!
Criminal mischief can be a fairly serious charge. He’ll probably plead it out, but the charge itself can jam him up until it’s resolved. It’s a misdemeanor in Texas, but what level and corresponding punishment depends largely on the value of the damage done. Over $50, as a window surely is, and you start looking at potentially thousands in fines and several months in county jail. Plus you lose your concealed carry license for five years thereafter.
As long as this wasn’t the result of a personal dispute, anger issues or drug/alcohol impairment, he has a decent chance of pleading out. He’ll have to make restitution to the builder, of course, and might be ordered to attend a firearms safety course; but he could possibly get away with deferred adjudication and not have a conviction on his record. It all depends on the judge, prosecutor and his own lawyer, who better be a good one.
When I was in college, I studied out of state. I changed my state residence and my address, and the dorm became my home. Allowed to protect yourself in your home, right, Idaho?
Florida Carry actually has a lawsuit pending against the University of Florida that turns on that exact premise. The campus police office has a specified secure area where people who live on campus can lock up their guns, but that doesn’t do anything for “home protection.” You also are required to use specific roads and follow a specific path to get to and from the campus police station with your firearm. Stray from that path, and you’re in potentially very hot water for having a firearm on a college campus.
Good luck with that suit going anywhere. I graduated from UF in 2011 and I got written up my freshmen year for having a NERF gun in my dorm. In general, Florida is very conservative in that county, but the school is very liberal (as colleges tend to be). Frankly that school generates too much money for the state and has too much power for that law to change anytime soon.
Also, they are one if the only college campuses with an actual police force present. Not your usual mall cop types. They have hostage response teams and bomb disposal techs. They’re gonna look at that as sufficient security.
All that aside, I do miss that campus. Great city to go to college in.
You might be surprised at how many colleges have tac squads and bomb-disposal units. When they can get armored vehicles from the military at pennies on the dollar, the temptation is hard to resist.
Yeah, I look at it as a first step. I’m not expecting a reversal of policy or anything.
At one point a decade or so ago there were three law enforcement agencies in Alachua County: Gainesville PD, ASO, and UFPD. Of the three, only one was nationally accredited. Guess which one.
I miss Gainesville, as well. It really is a nice town. I mean, as long as you don’t expect your vote to mean anything. Because it won’t.
Yeah, Students for Concealed Carry has been working there, with as few people as they get to be active, and it’s been at least putting some light on it. They would have soiled themselves if they knew I kept my pistol in my dorm in 2009. Didn’t talk about it, locked it in a toolbox and nothing ever came of it. I wasn’t about to let UFPD have my pistol. One of the first things I did living off campus during my grad school years was buying more guns.
That sucks. I went to school in another southern state, and the students had regular games of assassin with water guns and nerf guns and nobody ever cared.
When I attended Ohio University back in the mid ’90s there was no concealed carry law in Ohio so that wasn’t even in the table. However, they had a policy that students couldn’t possess firearms in their ‘homes’ even if they lived off campus in private housing. In theory their policy would have precluded someone who lived in Athens (where the university is located) already, and who owned guns from attending the university. (The policy was routinely ignored by students who didn’t live on campus but it says something about the mentality of the faculty and administration there.)
Several years after I left there was a row about a history professor who had a revolutionary war era musket on his office wall. Some other faculty member took offense to it and though there was no powder or shot on hand and the gun was a historical artifact and had hung there for decades the administration caved and the professor, under protest, was forced to remove it from the campus.
That is the sort of mentality you’re up against with college faculty and administration; a 200 year old (doubtfully functional) historical artifact is verboten on campus if it happens to be a gun, and students ought not to have guns even in their private homes off campus.
On the bright side there are some sensible professors out there. At the southern branch of OU I took a class on the history of the Vietnam war. I told the young professor who was teaching it that I happen to have a complete set of US fatigues and load bearing equipment from that era along with a period accurate M-16 (AR-15 in disguise) and an AK-47 and SKS rifles, the most common arms of the Vietnamese. I offered to wear the uniform and LBE and display the rifles since, well they are neat and it did fit into the class (sort of). He loved the idea, checked with administration and was told NO! in no uncertain terms. Determined, he scheduled a voluntary field trip for the class. . . to a piece of property my family owns and about 3/4 of the class showed up on a Saturday to get a look at the arms and gear.
The take away is, I guess, that college students think guns are pretty cool and college administrators by and large think they’re icky, but then, you already knew that.
We are working on that. This law (SB1254) is our “foot in the door” to get CWL holders the legal right to carry concealed on campus. Idaho law allowed the Colleges to “regulate” guns on campus, so they naturally banned them. With the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Peruta v. San Diego, we are advancing the agenda to have the 2nd Amendment apply to college students/staff/visitors on public campuses. We will reduce the restrictions in a year or two, when we can show that students with CWLs are NOT crazed spree killers. Gotta love Idaho St. Sen. Jim Rice: “We sometimes think our duty is to make everyone safe. It’s to preserve liberty. It’s not to make a society that’s absolutely safe.” Sure is nice to live in a state where the Legislature actually believes their job is “to protect and defend the Constitution…”
I love the frothing, pants-wetting opposition to this law. My favorite is a “news” article in today’s “Idaho Statesman” saying the bill “…is flawed and being orchestrated by a gun lobby with a tradition of domination and bullying.” That’s us EEEEVIL NRA members – dominating bullies. We are SOOOOO bad, doing nasty things like writing our state representatives and asking them to support this bill.
As a sample of typical anti-gun intellectual gibberish, this was part of a statement made in a guest editorial by “an associate professor of educational technology” at Boise State University”:
“As a faculty member at Boise State University, I am convinced that SB1254 is an unwarranted annulment of the authority of public institutions’ leadership to uphold an important provision that helps us define our unique context. … Institutions of higher education continue to be special places where we engage in learning and exploration together – in community. Legislation that celebrates the cult of the individual ready only for self-preservation is antithetical to our mission and should therefore be summarily dismissed.”
As far as I can tell, a real-world translation of this academic gibberish would be as follows: “We are a really special socialist fantasy world, and we don’t want no stinkin’ laws telling us that we have to give students’ any civil rights. Plus, we think college students should be willing to die like sheep, and not try to defend themselves. So there!” Is that close?
“Institutions of higher education continue to be special places where we engage in learning and exploration together…”
Well, that is the other argument that is routinely trotted out along with the “kids just out of high school” one noted elsewhere. “A gun in the classroom will destroy the free and easy exchange of ideas, as people will be intimidated out of disagreement, thus lessening the learning process.”
My response is always and ever thus: “Do you see fist fights, or even vehement arguments, regularly break out in your chemistry/history/philosophy/calculus class? If not (and the answer has never not been “no”), why do you think the addition of an adult legally carrying a concealed weapon is going to change that dynamic? Guns do not have psychic force; they are not going to make people get into arguments that they would not otherwise.”
Excellent point and well said. Then again, if the prospect that some students might be armed shuts the more liberal ones up perhaps that is a good start toward leveling the playing field for conservative students. Espousing ridiculous garbage and advocating the abrogation of others liberties ought not be something that one is comfortable doing in the first place, college or otherwise.
In fact, regardless of the venue, perhaps the basic fear that others will ridicule you and revile you (thought not attack you physically) for you ideas is a basic part of what is missing in mainstream America today. When I was a college student, despite the hippy vibe that was heavily prevalent in the student body, there was a basic agreement that government was necessary but problematic, that work was the mechanism that created stability and wealth, that supporting those less fortunate was important but secondary to the good of the majority, and that however much some attempted to conceal it we were all there hoping to get a leg up on others by having a degree for the purpose of improving our personal economy.
We had radicals on campus of course, but largely the student body viewed them as such and dismissed their rhetoric as what might be expected from radicals and lunatics; grist for the mill but no more.
What’s frightening about something like the occupy movement is that adults who ought to know better, who ought to have moved past it and developed jobs and responsibilities that preclude engaging in such behavior, who ought to have developed the ethic that sitting idle in a park is a poor use of time and who should have seen through the campus radicals who are after all only young, confused and in need of attention was so heavily staffed and even supported at high levels of government. If campus radicals are to be embraced for their ideas rather than simply ignored until they mature we are going to have a serious problem both economically and socially. Then again, we have serious problems and the president is nothing more than a campus radical who has received far too much recognition and authority. Is it any wonder that the sort of person the rest of us thought mad in college is incapable of running the country?
For some reason, I read Boise chief, Bat Masterson.
I almost typed it.
“We sometimes think our duty is to make everyone safe. It’s to preserve liberty. It’s not to make a society that’s absolutely safe.”
Now if we could just get Mr. Rice cloned (a few dozen times) we would be in good shape.
Or elected to a higher office..
+1
Sen. Jim Rice for President!
He initially attained his current, and only, office through appointment, not election. Let’s let him face the voters a few times for this one before he goes seeking a promotion.
“We sometimes think our duty is to make everyone safe. It’s to preserve liberty. It’s not to make a society that’s absolutely safe.”
Yes, we need more like Idaho state senator J. Rice, all would be best.
Seems the more government tries to do for us, the worse it is: educating people, predicting weather, making health care affordable, etc. Part of the problem is, it is not about helping the people, it is about a self-serving dictating government and Orwellian type speech.
God help US.
I would like those hide-away case a whole lot better if they included a metal lockable gun safe section instead of the soft part with a lockable zipper. That would allow me to lock up my pistol and carry it through states that did not recognize my CPL.
Also a little concerned about the off-body carry aspect and the fact that these would be very easy for anyone to smash a window and take away from you vehicle.
Interesting idea, but too many shortcomings that just being a somewhat clever disguise cannot overcome.
The first-aid kit is a bit of a strange one. Carry that through campus, better carry some band-aids in your pocket. And have a good excuse why you can’t open it in case someone asks for minor medical assistance.
“I, uh… there’s a broken bottle of iodine inside. Hazardous, y’know…”
It’s a cowboy movie horse medical kit.
Broken leg? Shoot.
That made me chuckle. It reminds me of the Far Side comic about the horse hospital where all the doctors carry shotguns.
It would be a little less suspicious if the tissue box didn’t actually have “TISSUE BOX” written on it. There might as well be one that is a sack with a dollar sign.
Other people elsewhere have made the same “tissue box” observation. But the “dollar sign on a bag” image made me laugh out loud. Thanks.
While travelling through states which do not recognize my CHL, I conceal my firearm, sneaky bastard that I am. If I’m ever caught (I cannot imagine how that would happen), I will claim ignorance (was a sign posted at the border?) followed by “Have Y’all read the 2nd?”
A lot of our problems are related to paying attention to the BS we are being fed. As opposed to “Here I am, come and get me!”, why do we feel obligated to even CHECK the laws of states we are passing through or doing business in? The 2nd applies everywhere in the U.S. As long as we whimper and hide, we are playing the grabber’s game. Just… IGNORE … them! Concealment rigs of all descriptions right up to underarm suppressed pistol carry are easily available.
And John Law, who is no doubt monitoring all of this, here I am. You know what the Constitution says as well as I do, regardless of what tricky politicians invent or corrupt justices proclaim. We both know what the 2nd says. I am sworn to protect it against all enemies, both foreign and domestic (that would be you!). If you are reading this you are WAY FAR out of bounds, if you are tracking me down as a result my oath says I am promised to be ready to engage. Pick your time, and bring your lunch, it’s gonna be a long day.
Clear enough?
And when the TSA checkpoints are on many highways (they have been on some, no idea how widespread), WHAT THEN?
Friggin narcs.
Snitches get Stiches
Ain’t nothing sadder than white guys trying to talk all gangsta.
What about white guys rapping?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=149jGeIlx3I
Yep, it’s hard being a white man and keepin’ it real in America.
I’ll never understand the whole, “college students shouldn’t be allowed to carry because of the prevalence of alcohol on campuses!”. I mean, what, do the antis believe that, if students are allowed to pack heat on campus, that they will be legally obliged to do so 100% of the time, even if they are drunk or plan on drinking? I mean, they couldn’t possibly just, you know, leave their weapons at home if they go to a party….
It makes about as much sense, which is to say it makes none, as banning cars on campus because someone might drink and drive.
Furthermore, they act as if going to college somehow requires one to drink alcohol.
Depends on the college! Liberty University, not so much. The University of Virginia, for example, pretty much….
This is where I have to do some moral and ethical searching. I went to Ohio University, consistently rated as a top party school and I have to admit that most of the people I knew there were perpetually high on marijuana and often drunk. They also tended towards pranks that were of the sort that might make for a legitimate DGU while at the same time would have caused no harm in an unarmed environment. (I recall an incident in which two frat brothers grabbed what they thought was a pledge rushing their frat, wrapped him in a sheet, bound him with duct tape and stashed him in a moving van for a ride to the country. When they opened the doors upon arrival at some secluded spot they found their victim had cut his way free and that they were at gun point. They had mistakenly kidnapped an off duty cop. The officer declined to press charges (something of a miracle since they had committed a laundry list of felonies) and eventually they plead to drunk and disorderly and the driver to DUI.)
I believe in liberty first and safety second, and I’m sure that in time the presence of guns carried by students would alter the maturity and restraint of all students, but I can also see opportunity for tragedy as well. Then again, we had a campus rapist back when I was in college who claimed about 6 victims in 2 years and to the best of my knowledge was never caught. Tragedy comes from all sides it seems.
Yeah, I was drinking SEVERAL times during my 5 years in college. A few times, I was even what I would call DRUNK!
GASP!!! ;P
I’ve been an on again off again college student in UT for the last decade. I carry on campus, hell I carry at my children’s elementary school and know several people who work in public education who carry daily. Hasn’t been an issuep here, I don’t expect it to be an issue anywhere else. A concealed firearm sure kicks the shit out of a call box when your world suddenly goes to hell.
Thank you! I was beginning to think I was alone!
Nevermind the fact that in most states, the students who are doing the drinking and partying (underage, of course) aren’t the ones who would be legally carrying. Most states require carry permit holders to be 21. It’s my favorite point to shoot down when this comes up, because someone always trots out the “irresponsible teenagers straight out of high school have no business carrying guns on campus” line, to which I easily and quickly respond, “Good, I’m glad you feel that way, because they won’t be the ones carrying anyway. They have no relevancy to this law.”
Or that these are people who can already legally carry everywhere else and they don’t cause problems. But all of a sudden when they step foot on campus they turn into a drunk lunatic who would blow away their teacher at the first sign of a bad grade. In all honesty by the time I turned 21 I was pretty much done getting hammered.
When the issue of campus carry comes up, the antis somehow think that it means that all college kids will be issued a sidearm with their books, a bottle of vodka, and a failing grade from a teacher.
That is a fantastic summation. I may use it in the future.
Yeah, but I’m not certain that it’s a bad idea!
You know, I don’t understand why it’s so difficult for people to understand the inherent problems with practicing with projectile weapons in the house. It’s not complicated. Don’t do it. Unless you are willing to set up your basement accordingly…
Well, he was using a steel pellet trap, you can see it in the video at the story link. He was just using it poorly. Very poorly, since it appears that he would have been firing into the trap at about a 20 degree down angle, and the hole in the window was nearly at shoulder height.
The trap alone is not enough. It is fairly cheap and easy to use 1/2″ plywood as a backer as well.
I live in one of the few towns in CT that will actually allow you to fire a pellet gun on your property without getting arrested. The only rule is that pellets must stay in your yard. I simply setup either two pieces of plywood side by side or I hang one of those movers blankets.
I don’t trust I will never miss the pellet traps which are rather small. It also allows me to setup a shooting gallery with tin cans.
Regardless, better to have not been pointing at a neighbors house.
Well, I attended college starting in 1964, and one of the upperclassmen (at Va Tech, BTW) had what I recognized instantly as an M-1 carbine hanging on his wall, in plain sight, in the dormitory, apparently attracting zero attention from anyone but me, I thought it was cool! When I finally together enough to comment on it, near the end of the year, he corrected me. It was an M-2 carbine, the select fire persuasion. I guess we just still understood the terms “rights” and “freedoms” a little better back then.
In case there are grabbers present (others would already know), I should add that particular gun never did get loose and spray the dormitory, murdering thousands. The school never mentioned firearms AT ALL during the 5 years I attended. But hey, the downside is that society locked up crazy people, rather than handing them guns and cars, poor babies.
Isn’t one of the 4 rules to check what is behind your target in case you miss? It is a mandatory question in my state’s test for a firearms license.
See the title of the Digest. 🙂
Fayetteville, NC. Home of Fort Bragg. Where, presumably, there are a fair number of “ammunition clips”.
“We sometimes think our duty is to make everyone safe. It’s to preserve liberty. It’s not to make a society that’s absolutely safe.” – Idaho state Sen. Jim Rice
This guy for President please.
He was awesome with the Red Sox way back when, too.
I live in Boise and have been following Masterson’s oppostion to the bill. If Masterson had his way no CCW’s would be issued or at least Boise wouldn’t allow CCW anywhere in the city limits. Either that or he would require hundreds if not thousands of hours of annual training and personal approval from him to grant a license. He is very anti-CCW rights. BTW, he is a blue stater from Madison, WI picked by a liberal democrat Boise Mayor (Dave Bieter). Unfortunately Boise is part of a small number of very blue leaning counties in an otherwise red state.
I wonder where they came up with 98 rounds per 5 years?? Seems pretty arbitrary, but I guess that’s par for the course with a lot of firearms legislation.
You take two boxes of boolits with you to quals. Then when you are done you have two left. Put one in the pipe and one in the mag cuz that’s all anyone would ever need.
That was set in the “enhanced CWL” legislation to meet the standards for states that didn’t recognize Idaho’s existing CWL, since no range time was required. We were mainly trying to get our CWL recognized by Nevada, Oregon and Washington. The arbitrary # is exactly that – arbitrary, but it makes other states happy. Idaho legislators passed the original “shall issue” law in a way to make it as non-burdensome as possible, short of Constitutional carry (we’re working on that).
I wondered that myself. I did a cursory search, but everything was just stating the requirement. I couldn’t find any justification for it.
I like the video. The guy is shooting an engine block to see if a .50 API will go through it, but is using a pile of brush as a back stop. Classic.
Hmm, I suppose. Although since the gun is on the roof of the truck (6′), and the engine block was only 20″ off the ground (16″ cinderblock + 4″ pallet), and I’m estimating the distance at 50 yards, a little trig tells me that if the bullet went straight through like a laser, it would hit the ground in just a little under 20 yards. If the range is only 25 yards, then it only would travel another 10 yards. Doesn’t seem like anything worth getting anyone’s jimmies rustled over.
I think I might have to make that into a T-shirt!
“We sometimes think our duty is to make everyone safe. It’s to preserve liberty. It’s not to make a society that’s absolutely safe”
Amen Senator Rice! Someone gets it!
how can a student carry on campus if guns are banned in the dorms?
My brother went to Clarkson University where he was allowed to keep guns at that time in Upstate NY. They had gun lockers at the security office. You went in, showed your ID, hand the man your key, they opened the locker and handed you the gun(s) and then you when you returned the opposite would happen after a safety check.
Ideal, no, but I assume a similar system could be put into place
Live off-campus. Lock your firearm in a console vault in your vehicle. The Idaho enhanced CWL required in this bill also has a 21-yr old age minimum, and most of the older students do tend to live off-campus.
Plus, we wanted to keep the colleges/universities from banning concealed carry by non-students, which is what they do now, even on the public parts of their in-town campus.
Well, that’s the trick, isn’t it. Just like in the real world, if you prohibit possession at the destination, you effectively prohibit possession going to and from, don’t you?
As for carrying on campus but storing in the university police station, that would ignore the fact that most on-campus crime happens in and around the residential halls and associated parking structures.
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