“If anyone has been paying attention to the news recently, it can be seen that ruthless gunmen are getting much less apprehensive about where they choose their victims. Shootings at college campuses, malls and fast food restaurants have been grabbing the headlines more than ever.”
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If anyone has been paying attention to the news recently, it can be seen that ruthless gunmen are getting much less apprehensive about where they choose their victims. Shootings at college campuses, malls and fast food restaurants have been grabbing the headlines more than ever. What is the cause of all this? One can’t say for sure, but what can be deduced from this is that we must be prepared, individually and as a university, to deal with this situation should it arise.
The most recent incident involving gunmen is the hijacking of the Maersk cargo ship last week. What is being overlooked with this story is how the ship’s crew wasn’t armed in order to defend themselves. They knew the delivery of the emergency aid to Kenya was going to be dangerous, and yet not one of them even carried a small pistol.
In December of 2007, a shooter in a mall in Omaha, Nebraska shot and killed nine people while injuring many others. The shooting began at 1:42 p.m. broad daylight, and ended only after the shooter took his own life. The police showed up six minutes after the shooting began only to find that seven victims had already died. Two others died while being taken to the hospital.
Of course we all remember the shooting at Virginia Tech in April of 2007, where 32 people were killed and several others wounded. The shooting began at 7:15 a.m. spanned two hours and crossed over the entire campus before the shooter eventually committed suicide. How quickly did Virginia Tech officials respond? An e-mail was sent to students at 9:26 a.m.; more than two hours after the first shots were fired. That’s quite a response time when lives were on the line.
On the other side of the aisle, there have been times recently where armed citizens have come prepared and have succeeded against those that threatened their lives.
On March 25, 2009 a robber entered a Miami Burger at 4:00 p.m. He showed his gun and proceeded to demand money from the cashier. A bystanding customer in the nearby Burger King saw what was happening and drew his concealed firearm which he had a license to carry and shot the thief 4 times, killing him. The citizen was shot several times as well, but was labeled in critical condition the same night. Witnesses say that the restaurant was busy, several of the customers being children just out of a nearby school.
On April 1, two weeks ago, Akron pizza shop owner John Hayes had a sawed-off shotgun pointed in his face by a masked gunman. After the gunman demanded money, Hayes handed him a stack of $10’s. While the robber momentarily moved the muzzle of his gun to tuck the money away, Hayes reached to his hip and pulled out his Smith and Wesson 9mm, successfully shooting the assailant several times. The gunman got out the door, but collapsed and was pronounced dead soon thereafter. Hayes said he felt he had a commitment to protect the customers that were in the store, let alone his own life.
What is the University of Akron’s policy? No one outside of the UA Police Department is allowed to carry a firearm, even if they have a conceal-carry permit. This means that the 26,000 students on campus are being protected by a staff of a few dozen, if that. Some of you may be thinking that is sufficient, but in a recent simulation by the UAPD they found that, on average, it takes them three minutes to respond to a random emergency on campus. That’s pretty fast, but how many people do you think could be killed in a three-minute span? The Virginia Tech gunman went from classroom to classroom, killing handfuls of students at a time.
Imagine your own classes today. How many students in your class would be killed in a three-minute period?
It is obvious that there would be a slaughter, but how can we keep turning our eyes away from the fact that it would be much better off to have legally armed professors and students to make sure the damage would be minimized? I guess we’ll just have to pray that the gunman gives the police a fair chance to catch up before the shooting starts. Criminals can be generous, can’t they?
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