Des Moines:

A gunman shot and killed a prominent Iowa high school football coach in the school’s weight room early Wednesday and was taken into custody shortly afterward, authorities said.

The gunman shot Aplington-Parkersburg High School coach Ed Thomas at about 8 a.m. with about 50 students in the school, including several in the weight room at the time. School was not in session, and no one else was injured.

The shooter was apparently not a student.

South Orangtown Middle School:

A school administrator wrestled a gun-toting former NYPD cop to the ground Tuesday after the crazed dad barged into a Rockland County school, furious his son got the swine flu, cops said…

Gun drawn, [Peter] Cocker strolled into the school past a security guard’s station about 11:30 a.m. The unarmed security agent called cops and in minutes, a SWAT team and several police units converged outside.

When the officer got to Mitchell’s office, they found the door had been barricaded and heard the sounds of a “violent struggle,” police said.

The officers blasted through the door with a shotgun.

By that point, Mitchell, 55, had already gained the upper hand.

This guy was obviously deranged, the superintendent acted heroically, and the story has a happy ending.

But if this idiot had gone in with the intent to kill large numbers of people, it appears that that unarmed security guard and the SWAT team would have been too late. Which is the way it will almost always be.

First Amendment Rights Trampled by Pittsburgh College after Student Advocates for Concealed Carry of Firearms on Campus

PITTSBURGH, May 27, 2009—A student who wants to form a gun-rights group at the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) has been threatened with disciplinary action for her efforts. Student Christine Brashier has turned to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for help after reporting that administrators banned her informational pamphlets, ordered her to destroy all copies of them, and told her that further “academic misconduct” would not be tolerated.

This is the gem:

When Brashier stated that she wanted to be able to discuss this policy freely on campus, she was told to stop doing so without the permission of the CCAC administration. Dean Burns reportedly said, “You may want to discuss this topic but the college does not, and you cannot make us.”

Waaaahhh! (via Instapundit)

This is astounding.

Yesterday, SB-1164 in Texas passed:

By a 20-11 vote, a divided Texas Senate gave final approval this morning to a bill that would allow college students with state handgun licenses to carry weapons in dorms and classrooms.

And get a load of the headline and lede at GunFreeKids.org:

Texas Senators Who Voted to Force Hidden and Loaded Guns Onto College Campuses Put Students’ Lives at Greater Risk of Gun Violence

(Austin, TX, May 20, 2009) – Today the Texas state senate passed dangerous legislation that would force the carrying of hidden and concealed guns at public universities and colleges.

Force.

You can’t make this stuff up. (via Uncle)

Massbackwards:

They always told us that if college students were allowed to carry handguns, there would be “blood in the streets”.

And, they were right!

COLLEGE PARK, Ga. — A group of college students said they are lucky to be alive and they’re thanking the quick-thinking of one of their own. Police said a fellow student shot and killed one of two masked me who burst into an apartment.

Via Uncle, who adds:

But, remember, college students are just too irresponsible to be trusted with guns on campus.

The question no one wants to ask is “But how did the cops tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys if everyone has guns?” because that’s always a big hand-wringer for opponents of legal carry on campus (and, to be honest, everywhere else).

So how did the cops tell the difference? Luckily, it wasn’t a problem. The cops didn’t get there until much later. (That’s what passes for “luckily” in some circles these days.)

So just what have the cops done about all this?

Police said they are close to making the arrest of the second suspect.

Thank God for that. Any day now they’ll have him in custody.

That is the title of an interesting editorial in the Missouri Western State University student paper:

It is the “Old West” argument, that if the populace is better armed, less people might be inclined to go on a shooting spree. If Johnny had known the student behind was armed as well, he might not have drawn his own heater.

But Johnny wouldn’t have known that, because the issue is not simply about carrying guns in school, it is about concealing them as well.

It is the popular opinion of the Griffon Newsroom that the story wouldn’t stop there. It is believed that in this situation, all chaos would break loose and head straight for the fan.

It’s sort of a rough piece. The point to the whole thing seems to be this: Better than allowing permit holders to carry concealed weapons on campus, the killer shouldn’t have allowed to have a gun on campus in the first place.

Apparently, they mean like at Virginia Tech.

I’m perfectly willing to listen to opinions about how allowing students to carry on campus may cause more harm than good. But anyone who makes the argument that NOT allowing students to carry on campus will prevent gun violence has certainly not been paying attention.

Watching the news, you’d think that some sort of gun crime renaissance was underway. The cynic in Murdoc wonders how much of it is due to sensationalized round-the-clock coverage. When a story is hot, all the other stories similar to it become hot, as well.

Take this in Michigan:

Two students dead in Michigan apparent murder-suicide

A student fatally shot a female classmate before turning the gun on himself Friday in an apparent murder-suicide that prompted a lockdown at a community college west of Detroit, police said.

The bodies of Asia McGowan, 20, of Ecorse, and Anthony Powell, 28, of Detroit, were discovered inside a classroom at a Henry Ford Community College building after police responded to an emergency call of an assault and shortly afterward reports of a shot being fired on campus, said Dearborn Deputy Police Chief Gregg Brighton.

Now, there’s no doubt that this is a completely legitimate news item. It deserves coverage. But it’s currently the lead item on MLive.com, and I wonder if that would be the case if some other high-profile gun crimes hadn’t been in the news lately.

Even more curious is this at the end of the story (an AP item, by the way):

Earlier Friday, a 19-year-old gunman wounded three people at a vocational training college in Athens, Greece, before killing himself, authorities said.

Murdoc finds tacking this onto the end of the article a bit odd. Does the crime at a voacational training college in Greece really have any relation to this? Also mentioned at the end is the Binghamton incident, which I guess at least was on this continent.

Unmentioned in the article is Henry Ford Community College’s carry policy.

John Woods 'learned pretty fast' that playing dead is the only possible defense.

So says one of the Mindless:

In April 2007, he was a student at Virginia Tech when his girlfriend and several other people he knew there were gunned down in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Thirty-two people died, plus the gunman.

There were times when Woods thought that maybe he should get a gun.

“Then I learned pretty fast that wouldn’t solve anything,” said Woods, who is now a graduate student at UT. “The idea that somebody could stop a school shooting with a gun is impossible. It’s reactive, not preventative.”

As Rand Simberg says: Huh?

Scenario:

1. Idiot with gun starts shooting students
2. Teacher or student with gun shoots idiot

Call Murdoc a simpleton, but I think that my little hypothetical scenario “solved” something. Maybe Murdoc needs to “learn pretty fast” or something.

I’m all for “preventative” measures. But when (not if) they fail, you had better have a reaction ready. This mindless never explains how he learned or figured out anything. Just that he did. And he’s leading the fight against campus carry in Texas. While wearing a “Virginia Tech Class of 2007 t-shirt.”

He says that things “happen too quickly” and that “You either play dead or you are dead.”

What are they teaching kids these days?

Over at Say Uncle: More on the recent mass shootings

He’s got a number of important points. Here’s part of one:

The Brady Bunch wasted little time dancing in the blood of the dead. They were quick to point out that Alabama, with it’s low Brady Grade, was, naturally, a place where such a violent attack could occur. They never point these grades out when mass shooting occur in #1 ranked California, #9 Illinois, or NJ.

Well, did Germany’s lax gun control and culture of gun ownership contribute to the horror in Winnenden?

Uncle also notes that some claim that the gun blogs never talk about crimes committed with firearms. Which is, of course, false.

I will admit that I’m surprised that I haven’t received more flak for always asking “what kind of gun was it?” whenever there’s some major incident. Some have wondered if I’m so detached from reality that I don’t notice the human tragedy in such events and only care about model numbers. Of course that’s not true. But this site covers guns, gun news, and gun politics. I don’t know how much I can really contribute to the outpouring of sympathy and outrage over the incident.

I hope I don’t rub anyone the wrong way with my coverage and commentary on such things, but anyone who takes it badly isn’t likely to really be interested in my point of view anyway. Let’s just say Murdoc’s not losing a lot of sleep over it.

Anyway, go read Uncle’s post.

UPDATE: Sebastian has some thoughts, too.

Professor Called Police After Student Presentation

This happened in October at Central Connecticut State University, but I don’t think I had heard about it until a reader tipped me off this evening:

On October 3, 2008, [John] Wahlberg and two other classmates prepared to give an oral presentation for a Communication 140 class that was required to discuss a “relevant issue in the media”. Wahlberg and his group chose to discuss school violence due to recent events such as the Virginia Tech shootings that occurred in 2007.

Shortly after his professor, Paula Anderson, filed a complaint with the CCSU Police against her student. During the presentation Wahlberg made the point that if students were permitted to conceal carry guns on campus, the violence could have been stopped earlier in many of these cases. He also touched on the controversial idea of free gun zones on college campuses.

That night at work, Wahlberg received a message stating that the campus police “requested his presence”. Upon entering the police station, the officers began to list off firearms that were registered under his name, and questioned him about where he kept them.

Apparently the professor thought the presentation made other students feel “scared and uncomfortable.”

I saw at least one gunblogger in the comments, but I gotta say that this one takes the cake:

Susie
As a student at CCSU i am deeply concerned. I do not agree with Wahlberg and I believe he should be put in prison for saying such things. When someone speaks of promoting guns they are promoting MURDER and should be punished. I’m all for free speech, just not when it comes to guns.

Then, Susie, you AREN’T exactly for free speech, are you?