“Patrick Neville was a 15-year-old sophomore at Columbine High School in 1999,” npr.org reports. “He was on his way to a fast food lunch when the shooting started. Two students, armed with guns and pipe bombs, had stormed the Colorado school, on their way to killing one teacher and 12 students — some were Neville’s friends. Neville, now a Colorado State Representative, says that many of Columbine’s teachers and faculty acted heroically that day. But . .
he says, ‘I truly believe that had some of them had the legal authority to be armed, more of my friends might be with me today.’ That’s part of the reason that Neville, a Republican, has proposed legislation in Colorado that would give anyone with a concealed weapons permit — ‘any law-abiding citizen,’ Neville says — the right to carry firearms in public schools.”
Needless to say, NPR gives a lot more air time to an opponent of “guns in schools” legislation currently under consideration in Colorado, Wyoming and North Dakota. Also needless to say, the counter-argument makes about as much sense as an Israeli supermodel link on a website seeking to [metaphorically] embrace female gun owners (e.g., “If I had a gun, kids are around me all of the time. They’re giving me hugs. So where do I keep that gun?”).
But that doesn’t change the fact that someone who’s been there – someone who’s been in the middle of a horrific active shooter event at a high school and paid at least part of the price – is arguing for common sense gun laws. For his pro-gun advocacy, we thank Colorado State Representative Patrick Neville and pledge to do whatever we can to help him do what we all want to do: keep our children safe from evil.
Good article and I enjoyed RF poking fun at himself.
Ditto.
“If I had a gun, kids are around me all of the time. They’re giving me hugs. So where do I keep that gun?”
I dunno. Where does Ronald McDonald keep his gun?
It got stolen by the Hamburgler.
Hamburgler’s crime is now being used as a justification for preventing Ronald from procuring a new one by the opposition party, lead by the Burger King.
Guns only belong in the hands of trained professionals, such as the Colonel at KFC. You try to steal his recipe at your peril…
High school teachers aren’t on a hugging rampage every day.
I think the last teacher that did is being charged with sexual assault and statutory rape.
In the non-government, private company world that I work, hugging at work is considered sexual harassment, and it will get you fired. I once worked a 2 year contract at the DOE where I learned how different it is. Sexual harassment and racism in the non-government world gets you fired, but in government, the worst that may happen to the offender is a few days off to attend sensitivity training and some time off to speak to a union representative who will block any attempt to discipline the offender.
If the kids are small, bend over and hug shoulder to shoulder, that way we avoid the child hugging the waist of the teacher.
Better yet, don’t hug my kids.
“But that doesn’t change the fact that someone who’s been there – someone who’s been in the middle of a horrific active shooter event at a high school and paid at least part of the price…”
In fairness to the truth, this guy was “in the middle of a horrific active shooter event” like Brian Williams was in a helicopter hit by a RPG.
This guy was a lot closer to the action then Williams ever was.
“He was on his way to a fast food lunch when the shooting started”
I’d like more information, but it does appear that he wasn’t actually in the shooting. We need solid facts here. Unsupported assumptions are not good.
On a serious note- this is a guy who was there, who is saying…
“Good guys with a gun could have stopped bad guys with a gun…”
Seems to me I have heard that someplace…yeah, NRA.
And about 90% of street cops, per PoliceONE survey not long after Sandy Hook.
oh, yeah, lets not forget the qoute “that not true, and the data proves its not true….”
according to the famous Goebells wannabe MDA spokesperson and former Monsanto GMO PR hack,
Shannon Watts on CNN New Day, 2013.
http://www.guns.com/2014/06/09/watts-of-moms-demand-action-good-guy-has-never-stopped-bad-guy-with-gun-video/
sorry- too slow on the edit- skip ahead to 6:38 for the money shot on Shannon-
note the stunned looks of the CNN hosts as they try to process the insanity of Shannons announcement-
and the loud smack of the face palm in their earpieces from the producer in the studio booth…
(RF, you were once one of those guys, correct? – can you imagine…New Day on a Saturday is not the sharpest sticks in the CNN shed, right. I can just hear the gears grinding in the talking heads little progtards brains trying to reboot, w/ interns clueless, producer spluttering “go to the sponsor commercials!” finally…)
A lucky survivor … Any word if Shannon Watt’s head as exploded yet? I’ll pay good money to see that video.
http://youtu.be/pjnZO5ZgWE8
I use this for my daily two minutes of hate.
Why would it? Shannon just regurgitates what Bloomy spoon feeds her. Agent Orange sales person at Monsanto. Sheep in Animal Farm. A useful idiot.
I really appreciate a true common sense approach to guns. It makes perfect sense to let anyone with a CCW be armed on school property.
Utah allows carry in schools and we haven’t had any issues yet, other than a teacher dropping her gun in the bathroom and killing an innocent toilet.
Oregon does too.
Yep, every time i drop the kids off, or go to an afterschool event…
Barring Constitutional carry, anyone with a CCW should be armed anywhere they have the legal right to be.
Don’t suppose he has a close relative interested in California politics?
My kid was maybe 8 at the time, and we talked about it. They lived right by the next high school to the west, and knew kids who went to Columbine (later) (esp. since it was, by then, the IB school in the area). Middle to upper middle class suburbia.
It does take awhile to get your CO CCW license. And, almost $200 (depending on the county), plus the NRA class, if you can’t otherwise qualify. And, then they say it should take 6-8 weeks (only took 4) to process. They need to send your prints to CBI, JIC. Wasn’t expecting any problems, and didn’t have any, after a couple of security clearances, multiple law and real estate licenses, etc. Looks a lot like my CO DL, and have mistakenly given it to people checking my ID.
I don’t expect it to become law though. The big problem, I suspect, is the governor, who previously was the mayor of gun-phobic Denver. (One of the reasons that the state became Shall Issue was that Denver would only give permits to friends and relatives of the mayor and members of the city council, while in Colorado Springs, 60 miles to the south, the sheriff was issuing them to anyone with a pulse, even apparently if they were from Denver. State now has fairly uniform rules, except for what the different counties charge).
It was $112.50 to the sheriff and CBI together. Still is that amount to my knowledge here. Took me about 6 weeks to receive mine, but I have friends who have gotten theirs more recently in 3 weeks. (El Paso County) Hunters safety qualifies as the training requirement here so it’s only an additional $10.
Mine was $152.50 and took 14 days (Douglas County).
For me it took a surprising 3 weeks. (Jeffco). Went rather smooth too, and there were a whole lot of other applicants there the day I went in.
How long it takes seems to vary widely By county. In addition to the above… my Dad’s took 13 days (Elbert) while my brother, who lives in Adams County, had to wait nearly 5 months (including 3 months to get an appointment – while my Dad and I merely walked into our respective Sheriff stations unannounced).
El Paso Sheriff’s Office processed my renewal on the spot (I did have to make an appointment; it wasn’t as casual as the other county beginning with El (Elbert) mentioned above. The original 1995 group (I wasn’t in line that first day, but I got started within a couple of months) has been so trouble-free over the years they basically said, “here’s your new permit. If you hear from us, we found something during the check and we’re revoking it.” Which is about as close to “as it should be” as one can get without ditching the permit entirely.
What happens to federal law then? I don’t see the current administration ignoring federal law like they do in Washington and Colorado on Marijuana. You can pass laws all day but getting busted federally doesn’t sound prudent.
The supremacy clause only applies to laws pursuant to the Constitution, any federal law that is outside the enumerated powers in the Constitution are unconstitutional and do not have the force of law
You can check at NRA-ILA, but my recollection is that the Federal law exempts licensed carriers if they are also exempted by the State.
If you’re referring to the Federal GFSZA, it has a specific exception for people licensed by the state where the school is located. 18 USC 922 (q)(2)(B)(ii)
I hope he succeeds. So he’d be more effective if he’d been shot?!? It’s not traumatic to have your friends murdered in high school? Whatever…
To keep our children safe from evil. As Col. Cooper said, Evil exists out there. Be grateful there is a means to stop it.
A liberal is just a conservative who hasn’t been mugged yet.
Nice snark RF. Wonder how many of the newer lurkers catch the reference to the Israeli supermodels.
Maybe they need an update…ok, ok, just kidding WOTG!
Is 200 million page views, and highest Alexa rank for independent gun blog enough to say TTAG is mainstream?
Maybe you will have to move the cigar room to another basement someplace…call it Ralph and Tom’s, or something. Lots of stuffed heads, rare and interesting weapons in glass cases or on the wall, and nothing but the finest stogies and likker?
Just for the record, teachers (in my city) are specifically advised against hugging students. It’s not even a liability thing, it’s something we wanted because the kids don’t learn to function properly in the real world if we create a family atmosphere instead of a workplace atmosphere. I know it sounds cold but I think you’d have to be a teacher to understand. Imagine if you grew up thinking it was OK to hug your boss when you did well on a project.
Now someone will chime in that they always hug their boss when they do well at work, but for a moment, picture that happening in a rock quarry. Or every time a mechanic fixes a car.
Oh please, such nonsense. I went to “school” in the 1950s and hugged every one of my teachers, and lots of other people. I never had any urge to hug the “boss” or the doctors at work later. Hugged plenty of students when I taught at the college.
I guess a cold, friendless and frightening atmosphere is just what you need to indoctrinate children into being unthinking drones, as long as they’re kept on their meds anyway.
Get the children out of these death camps. Let their mothers and families teach them… and hug them. My grandsons and lots of other people hug me plenty. They are not frightened of the gun on my belt, and they don’t mess with it either.
How about, instead of rigid rules, we just teach our kids the proper social skills to be able to understand when a hug is and isn’t appropriate?
It’s not that hard, but it does require parenting your kids instead of delegating that responsibility to a government employee.
It doesn’t happen in Bedrock or at Spacely Sprockets.
Wish it did though. From hearing about the atmosphere in the then Columbine community, hugs might have let those two know they were valuable and noticed. Firm discipline can have the same effect.
My sister was in the commons at Columbine when the shooting happened and she had to run for her life. I was the student body president there a few years later and there is no question that if there had been armed teachers it would have made a dramatic difference in saving most of the lives and possibly all of them. A teacher yelled for all the students to get under the tables moments prior to the shooters entering the school and if that one teacher had been armed he most likely would have stopped the shooters at that moment saving the lives of most of the students in the commons and all of the students in the library upstairs. Ever since that day I and many of my siblings have made sure we would never be caught out in such a situation and are prepared to act and respond in order to stop the threat and save lives. There is nothing else that can protect the children and students of America more than having armed teachers/personnel to respond to and neutralize any violent threat to our schools.
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