Hanna Pennington, a Marshall University student (not pictured above), brings a new twist to the age-old, “I’m a gun owner, but I support gun control” shtick. Instead, she prefers to trump that with, “I have a concealed carry license, but I oppose campus carry.” Clearly, qualifying for a concealed carry permit doesn’t convey wisdom or common sense on the recipient if none existed previously.
West Virginia is in the midst of a debate on campus carry as a result of a bill that’s currently working its way through the legislature. After passing the House, it failed to make out out of a Senate committee this week.
Following the same pattern seen in every other state in which campus carry has been legalized, faculty and vocal members of the student body are predicting blood and mayhem in the halls of academe if licensed individuals are permitted to pack heat during the education process.
Who was it who famously wrote that it’s better to be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt? Seems Miss Pennington, the “Life!” section editor for the Marshall University student newspaper, didn’t get to that quote in her college coursework. At least not yet.
She writes of her feelings in the Daily Parthenon:
Guns do not belong on campus. I say that as someone who is not against the concept of owning a firearm. I say that as a woman who owns a pistol and as someone who takes advantage of my right to carry a concealed firearm nearly every day.
I am no stranger to feeling uncomfortable or vulnerable in a public place. Because of this, I feel that carrying a gun in my purse is an equalizer. Although I hope to never use it, having it makes me feel more comfortable in situations where I am alone and would normally feel somewhat helpless. I shouldn’t have to feel this way, but I do, and carrying a firearm gives me confidence.
However, I don’t feel this way on my campus. I don’t feel scared or at risk when I am walking from class to class; I don’t feel I need a gun within arm’s reach as I’m studying in the library or in the Student Center.
Puzzlingly, Pennington states that gun regulations such as campus carry prohibitions don’t restrict her rights. Is that some form of Orwellian newspeak? Is slavery somehow freedom? Is ignorance strength on the Marshall campus?
At the same time, she manages to mention her “feelz” eleven times in a four-paragraph span. Impressive. Young Ms. Pennington writes that guns aren’t necessary at Marshall because she “feels” protected on her campus, while completely ignoring the possibility that someone else might have a different opinion on the matter.
When it comes to her fellow students, she probably has little to worry about. However, sometimes the real world intrudes onto college campuses. Like a high-profile incident just a couple of weeks ago at the University of Chicago where three armed robbers ran through campus buildings while fleeing police.
Closer to my world, Illinois State University regularly sends out text messages alerting students and staff of dangers on campus here in our bucolic town, which isn’t terribly unlike Huntington, home to Marshall. We get alerts on a weekly, if not daily basis. These situations include armed robberies, sexual assaults, reports of shots fired, shootings, stabbings and my favorite, “man with a gun on campus.”
Let’s face it: sometimes bad things happen, even to good people like Ms. Pennington. She probably doesn’t feel any imminent danger from fire either, but almost certainly has a smoke detectors and extinguishers in her home and classrooms. Just in case.
Hanna Pennington has the freedom to choose not to carry and will have to live with the consequences of that decision. But she shouldn’t presume to make that decision for everyone else.
Her feelings of safety or non safety have nothing to do with rights. Maybe if she was getting a real education, she’d have the mental capacity to understand the concept of rights vs feelings.
“… I don’t feel I need a gun within arm’s reach as I’m studying in the library or in the Student Center…”
How about when you are walking back to you car at night, in that darkened corner of the parking lot?
Or shall he just pee and bite the pillow?
Maybe she should talk to Amanda Collins, a rape survivor from the University of Nevada Reno:
“Just the other day, I was asked “Why do you need a firearm on campus? What’s so threatening about becoming educated?” Here’s my answer: Eight years ago, during my junior year at the University of Nevada-Reno, I was raped in the parking garage only feet away from the campus police office.
As this stranger raped me while holding a pistol to my temple, I could see the police cruisers parked for the night, and I knew no one was coming to help me. Eventually the man who raped me, James Biela, was caught. He was tried and convicted for not only raping me at gun point in a gun-free zone, but also raping two other women and murdering Brianna Denison. So, I ask, “How does rendering me defenseless protect you against a violent crime?”
Most college graduates are dumber after four years.
Proof?
When they enter college they thought there were two sexes and when they exit they believe there are 57+.
If they are that wrong on something that basic imagine how wrong they are on things that involve more thought.
You can’t fix stupid. Proof a good education does not ensure the recipient gained any knowledge or understanding from the experience. Why have a CCW/LTC if you don’t carry? I carry everywhere I go, and places my gun is not welcome, I assume I am not welcome also, and I don’t go.
MB said, “You can’t fix stupid. Proof a good education does not ensure the recipient gained any knowledge or understanding from the experience.” Correct MB and I have to question the quality of the GOOD EDUCATION! Nigel the Expert ask the question I would like to hear Ms Pennington answer, So, I ask, “How does rendering me defenseless protect you against a violent crime?”
Ms Pennington is only pro 2A when it is convenient and goes along with her feelings. No person has to carry but those choosing not to carry should quit worrying about those who do carry.
Either your ready or your not!!!
“G̶u̶n̶s̶ Criminals do not belong on campus.”
FIFY
I hope Ms. Pennington never has to find out any different, but as I’ve said before. If you need a firearm anything else is a poor substitute.
Nobody needs a gun on campus – til they need a gun on campus.
Momma has been gone several years now. But, she keeps getting smarter and smarter every year, She always said, “Better to have and not need than to need and not have.” 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
I always find the more I practice, the luckier I get.
I’m not sure she really carries. If she actually has a license, it was gotten to humor Dad and not something she wanted or cares about. She just advertised to the world that she’s unarmed on campus, and if she is armed, it’s in her purse. If someone wants a gun, they just have to snatch her purse when she’s off campus. If they want to do harm to her, their opportunity if when she’s on or going to/from campus. Or, separate her from her purse off campus. Maybe her campus is relatively safe and she wants to live in Condition White. Perhaps her privilege is showing, “I don’t feel I need a gun, so you don’t need one either.” Marshall may be heaven on Earth and protected by responsive police, but what about other WV campuses? What harm does a gun in her bag do in the library? If she’s worried about theft, there may be other crimes to worry about too. My campus had on-campus rapes (male and female victims) and a couple murders while I was attending, and the surrounding city was rife with crime.
BTW, when I say on-campus rape, I mean the grab you from the bushes and hold a knife to your throat kind, not taking advantage of someone who’s too drunk to resist or didn’t obey “stop” when things got hot and heavy (which happened so often they weren’t published). We had emergency call boxes scattered throughout campus, and you could ask for a Safety Patrol to escort you around campus at night. Still didn’t prevent them all, and you were SOL if you were going off campus.
Well, she IS correct: You don’t need a handgun until you really NEED it, and when you DO need it, you need it VERY badly. Otherwise, you don’t really NEED it. It’s rather like a fire extinguisher or a seat-belt. . . or a motorcycle helmet, or eye protection, or any other safety device. You don’t need ANY of those things until the very moment that you DO, and if you don’t HAVE them, it’s too late to go get one.
This is why we can’t have nice things.
Motorcyclists are always warned….Don’t dress for the weather. Dress for the crash.” Same mantra applies to every type of insurance….home, auto, life…..yes, and guns. Don’t insure for the typical day. Insure for the worst day of your life when evil and violence come calling at your door, always without an appointment. Guns are another type of life insurance. insurance that may keep your loved ones from prematurely collecting on your traditional life insurance. Once you have a car accident or home fire, you can’t afterwards decide to go buy insurance to cover that loss. When evil and violence knock on your door, they don’t wait while you run to the gun shop to buy a gun and wait 3-10 days for your background check to be approved……..or for the police to arrive to protect you.
Ask a Virgina Tech student
And don’t forget yesterday’s news report where a wanted, and on-the-run cop-shooter was chased, shot at, and ultimately killed by LEOs directly adjacent to the West Virginia University campus.
How would her “feelz” protect her from that, if the suspect had decided to take off running through the campus and tried something drastic, like taking hostages?
https://www.whsv.com/content/news/All-clear-after-report-of-shots-fired-near-WVU-campus-but-questions-linger-506776391.html
Translation: “I am so susceptible to identity politics and that I allow others to decide what I think and how I act. Because pleasing the hive-mind is more important than being myself.”
“Clearly, qualifying for a concealed carry permit doesn’t convey wisdom or common sense on the recipient if none existed previously.”
Fixed it:
Clearly, qualifying for admission to college doesn’t convey wisdom or common sense on the recipient if none existed previously.
So campus is that one magical place where it’s impossible to carry a firearm illegally and you would never need to defend yourself.
Good to know.
A: College campuses are rape fests where drunk frat boys victimize women daily.
B: College campuses wonderful places where women are safe and protected without the need to carry.
Liberals need to pick one.
Similar sentiment to mine, but you beat me to it by a couple of minutes or so.
Considering that the public in general has the memory of a goldfish they have no reason to pick one. Using whichever is convenient works, works well and won’t be noticed. If it is noticed it will be forgotten in 10 days.
Example: All that nonsense in Virginia is already forgotten.
There’s no danger in lying to an amnesiac who doesn’t remember enough to know your story changes day to day.
Of course campuses are magically protected by the faerie dust and wishful thinking of students and staff.
To listen to liberals, mass shootings are an everyday occurrence. That’s why we must impose further infringements on firearms freedom, as any second you could join the ranks of spree shooting victims.
Yet, at the same time, everyone always feels where they are. That’s why we need not expand the domain of lawful carry, since there’s no realistic chance of you becoming a spree shooting victim.
I wish liberals would just pick a lie and stick with it.
Blah blah blah confirmation bias blah blah looking for patterns that for preconceived notions blah blah blah adding more trouble for us to not deal with because we deny reality blah blah blah.
strych9,
It looks to me like a lot of people on both sides are denying reality, as evidenced in the hornet’s nest that I stirred up in yesterday’s article.
Indeed.
My annoyance is that smart and principled people can’t seem to keep it straight. The folks around here are right that incrementalism favors our opposition which is problematic especially since we’re not particularly unified while “they” are and “they” are more than willing to lie, cheat, steal, take things out of context and try to shoehorn everyone in the gun community into a caricature of unpleasant people.
In a public debate we need to be careful about a lot of things and work diligently to make points while avoiding the argumentative traps the other side lays out. We do very poorly IMHO at the latter and that undercuts our ability to make points in a way that the target audience will accept.
Which is exactly why I took a free-kick wind up at a wasp nest yesterday too.
Check the definition of the phrase,” shall not be infringed”. “Shall not” does not mean a little bit or sometimes. My state uses “The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State shall NOT BE QUESTIONED. emphasis mine. To bear arms in defense of themselves means the authors did not think it necessary to use the words “to keep”. Why do these DUMBASSSED people on any campus think not having armed people on a “gun free’ shooting range is in any way logical or safer is far beyond my comprehension. That clown at Vt a few years ago would have been stopped by an armed prof or student. Many mass shootings take place in “gun free” zones which apparently is beyond their comprehension. Years ago Mensa told me I was in the top 4% of the population so if I don’t understand something it is a bit strange. Mensa old takes the top 2% of the population.
Densa also has message boards for people who believe in astrology. I wouldn’t use them as a measuring stick for intelligence. I qualify for membership, went to school and worked with hundreds of people who qualify, but I only know 1 that admits to belonging. It’s bragging rights for insecure people ‘- “Look, I’m smart. RESPECT ME!”
Mensa is just another also ran nowadays. Triple 9 is where the smart people are now. Or the ones who THINK they’re smart, to be more accurate.
The ones so excessively trained in one discipline, that they think they know a lot about everything. And then they use big words at random, that mean nothing but gibberish, but they manage to intimidate quite a few until they get asked a decent question, and then they act like foolish infants. Keep your eyes open for them, they’re everywhere.
Anywhere a police officer can go with a gun, so should I.
Even so called gun free zones, airports, etc guns are frequently found, whether with evil intent or just “whoops, was still carrying it…” Someone who will shoot you on campus in a heated discussion will shoot you for taking their parking spot at the grocery store or cutting them off in traffic, there isn’t anything special about campus that will suddenly turn responsible adults into murderous criminals, and if, by chance, they do become evil killers as they step from Walmart or the movie theatre to campus, the legality of having a weapon won’t change anything, other than maybe the odds of survival for their victims.
Okay ladies and gentlemen: what is a persuasive and effective message to gain the support of someone like Miss Hanna Pennington?
We all (you, Miss Pennington, and I) know that any number of events have occurred (and can continue to occur) on college campuses that have exposed students to mortal danger: nevertheless Miss Pennington somehow feels safe and has no desire for anyone to be armed on campus.
We can tell Miss Pennington that, while she feels safe enough to be unarmed, we do not and it is our right to be armed: nevertheless Miss Pennington dismisses our right because feelings, or GUNS, or some such nonsense.
So, Miss Pennington rejects matter-of-fact statements about risk of attack on campus and matter-of-fact statements about our fundamental right to be armed for self-defense on campus.
It stands to reason, then, that repeating the exact same matter-of-fact statements multiple times will not win the support of the Miss Pennington’s in our nation. What should we do differently? How can we win the support of her types?
She holds a CCW permit and carries off campus because she feels vulnerable there. Why does she think she is safe on campus? My city has two major universities. Both have had sexual assaults and armed robberies committed by intruders from off campus. A few months ago, two male students took down an intruder who threatened others with a hunting knife when they complained about the noise he was making in the library. Even if response from campus security and city police is prompt, is it adequate? Adequate means before the bad guy can harm you.
I feel far more vulnerable in gun free zones than any other place. She is entitled to her opinion and if she feels she does not need her weapon on campus, as of right now, that is fine but she has gone much farther if she thinks others that do not feel safe on campus must be forced to abide by her opinion and not allowed to have their weapon. Maybe she will be “woke” some day when those in power decide she does not need a weapon at all anymore even in places where she does not feel safe.
Paraphrasing……Others rights don’t end where her feelings begin.
Ever since I was a teenager, I always knew that emotion often impacts the choices that people make. What I have recently come to realize is that emotion utterly dominates (going so far as sometimes being the only factor) in the choices of many people.
How do we break-through to such people? Is it even possible to break-through to such people?
This is exactly why I talk about advertising.
Call it “optics” or PR or whatever you want. Advertising starts with an emotional hook that cracks open a door and makes people open to suggestion. Once you’ve cracked open the door you have a choice, you can pile through bullshit propaganda or you can pile through truth and facts.
The Left has exploited this facet of the way our brain works to pile through bullshit. There is, however a vulnerability in that approach, insofar as the fact that if we can re-crack the door we can start to shove through facts that are demonstrably true. This will generally create a form of cognitive dissonance in the affected person and cause them to check their premise and realize that it’s wrong.
Once we’ve done that more facts bolster their new position, they change their mind and are far, far less susceptible to propaganda in the future. The key to understanding how exactly to do this (and it will vary a bit for different parts of the population, which is why companies run multiple advertisements for the same product) is understanding how the brain recognizes and acknowledges patterns.
If we’re willing to pick up the same sword the Left has been using for 70 years we can fight back and do so effectively. If we’re not, and at this point we generally are not, then we’re just going to get cut to ribbons over time.
2016, EMS was unable to provide EMS to anyone due to the number of calls of someone in OD state. Four hours of Aug. 15, 28 people overdosed in Huntington; 26 of them were saved.
5 years ago, It was the most unhealthy city in the US.
I know the area well, I would not enter that area of WV, OH or KY without being armed. A close family member used velvet parking at Cabal County hospital I said, “ARE YOU CRAZY?!?!” Why? Your regeneration is in the console or glove compartment right? Yes. They take out their phone, take an image of it, now they have a nice bit of info on you to commit fraud. Oh I never thought about that….. The same Huntington where Marshall is located in.
Think that this young woman and others of similar ilk might one day be the leaders of this country?
Hannah is wrong – she just doesn’t know it yet. She speaks with the outlook of too many young females, and a lot of young males. She is on the right path. She just hasn’t arrived at the destination yet.
With this in mind, lets help her. Calling her ignorant is impolite and downright rude. Help her understand. She is already a 2A believer.
2A advocates need every vote that can be mustered. Calling someone sympathetic to the cause a dumbass is a dumbass thing to do.
Lugnut,
How exactly do we help the Miss Pennington’s of the world to understand?
She already rejects the idea that risk of attack on campus warrants being armed for self-defense even though she knows what has happened and what could happen on campus.
And she already rejects the idea that we have a right to be armed for self-defense, a right which needs no justification.
How do we help her understand? How do we win her support?
What if it is not possible to win her support? Allow me to illustrate. Imagine a single woman stranded on a small island with five rapists and no one else. There is no way in the world that woman is going to say anything to win the support of those five rapists and avoid them attempting to rape her. In that case, rather than exerting effort trying to win the support of rapists, she would be much wiser trying to fashion weapons and convince those rapists that they will suffer mortal wounds if they try to rape her. Is that our situation? Are we trying to win the support of rapists which cannot be done? If so, we would be wise to recognize that fact and inform the rapists that we will cause them great pain if they try to rape us.
Your question of, “how” continues to come up. Why not simply ask these types , “why?” Anyone with half a mind will walk themselves right down the logic hole.
AD,
I have asked the “Why” question a million times and it is not effective because people by-and-large do not operate on a logical basis.
I have asked people both literally and figuratively, “Why would you occupy yourself rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic while it is sinking?” And their response: because it provides a way for them to delay thinking about the fact that the ship is sinking and it feels good to be “doing something”.
That is the fundamental problem. I have not figured out a way to break through that. That is why I am asking everyone, “How do we break through that?”
So, are college campuses home to a “rape culture” or are they inherently safe places? Just last year I distinctly remember a different narrative being pushed. Funny how the story changes with the ebb and flow of the political tide.
Maybe my experience is different, but I can’t recall ever being put in danger by law abiding citizens. I can recall having a gun and knife pulled on me by a few scum bags though.
Another entitled brat who was never taught that my rights don’t end where her feelings begin.
I’m glad that CCW makes her feel comfortable but if I had to guess I’d also say that I sincerely doubt she has 6 minutes of training on safe handling and practices with the gat she’s got in her bag.
What are you talking about? No one needs training. Buy a gun. Load it. Carry it. Training? We don’t need no stinking training!?
People do not need training to carry a gun, but they do need common sense. A person with common sense will not carry a gun unless they know how to properly handle said gun.
I’m guessing she hasn’t taken a night class and had to walk alone to her car in a remote parking lot.
I’m sure a no guns policy will protect those pretty girls from all matter of mayhem. Yup.
In the late 19th century a dude went west to start ranchin’. After getting supplies at the gen’ral store, he asked the clerk when he would need a gun, as he noted everyone had one. The clerk replied, “Well, I don’t know-you might not need it for a year, or maybe a couple of months, or possibly next week, could be tomorrow. But, I can tell you that when you need it–there won’t be time to come back and get it”. Nuff said
That’s funny! Mind if I borrow it?
She should get the Charles Whitman award for on campus false sense of security.
When the purse snatcher runs away with purse and gun, you’re going to feel very silly.
Online journalism and history major. Communications intern with City of Huntington. Small town high school in Hurricane WV. See public Facebook page. You would think she would know better coming from a small town where, it being WV after all, meth and oxy must have been freely traded in the high school parking lot. Indoctrinated by/at the university. Eegads.
BS article written by a non gun owning Leftist.
“Many of us are simply concerned that we will lose the safety we presently have on campus.” I have to wonder why she thinks allowing concealed carry on campus would make them less safe? There would not be fewer police officers. As a supposed cc’er herself, does she think she would be less safe if she cc’d on campus? Or does she think other legal cc’ers would make it less safe? Her comment on mass shootings is also baffling. Does she think that allowing concealed carry on campus would somehow encourage someone to attempt a mass shooting, or does she think a legal cc’er will just snap and start shooting people? Anyone with half a clue realizes that a “no guns” sign will not prevent either of those scenarios. In fact, knowing that there are more people carrying on campus is more likely to dissuade those cowardly mass shooters who all prefer unarmed targets.
And if ignorant students like her were not allowed on campus-along with those criminals who are always going to follow gun laws-how many would there be left walking around?
And let’s not forget those poor souls in the Florida bank that was assassinated and then the perp surrendered
Those people in the Florida bank could have been carrying. It happens that none were. Carrying in a bank is legal in Florida.
The nice areas are the hunting grounds. Unless you’re slinging drugs the guys out looking to redistribute wealth aren’t working the trailer parks, they’re hitting the McMansions 2 neighborhoods over. Plus they bank on nice areas having nice (in this case meaning weak) people who are less likely to fight back while all their expensive stuff is getting yarded off. Ignorant college kids with electronics and goodies supplied by parents able to afford the tuition are a ripe target indeed. Especially when the “just give them what they want” approach to aggression is widely advertised.
“Guns do not belong on campus…”
Said every socially maladjusted youth everywhere as they stormed past the gun-free sign of a campus to shoot it up. Logic apparently doesn’t belong on campus either.
As a West Virginian , a supporter of MU , having multiple family members that are grads and some who are current students , with MU just a few miles from my home and my farm , I have my ante in this game .
I have watched closely the debates , the politics , the chaos and confusion that this legislation has created here and it is not just sickening to witness first hand all the above but even greatly more sickening to understand that this is typical and standard procedure when it comes to the second amendment fights , where ever they take place .
Common sense and reason are always cast to the winds and emotional arguments of doom and gloom play the day when the proof and statistics are on our side and the historical proof of the ‘ gun free zones ‘ is against every argument they make .
The decisions being made here in our state today will haunt us tomorrow and we all will rue the day we were not able to stand tall and finish what we started . Gun ownership , gun carrying and gun knowledge , on the part of non criminal peoples makes people safer , and the criminal will not care about or obey laws anyway .
Common sense and reason are quickly evading the psyche of American society .
Great article
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