NRA calls campuses ‘disarmed victim zones’
Saturday, April 10, 2010 9:41 PM EDT

By JENNIFER ABEL
Staff writer

Of all rights and freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, the Second Amendment’s “right to bear arms” is arguably the most controversial and the most restricted.

To protest one of those restrictions, last week college students throughout the nation took part in the “Empty Holster Protest” sponsored by Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. Students wore empty holsters to call attention to the fact that even students with the legal right to carry weapons are forbidden to do so on college campuses.

At Central Connecticut State University, members of the school’s gun club — officially dubbed the Riflery and Marksmanship Club — wore their empty holsters all week. “I have the right to self-defense off-campus but not in school,” said Sara Adler, the Riflery Club president. “If you attack me at school I’ll — throw my pen at you. That will stop you,” she said, smiling.

The Connecticut state Constitution states “Every citizen has a right to bear arms in defense of himself and the state,” but in practice that right is curtailed. Permits to carry handguns require a training and screening process, and applicants must be at least 21 years old to qualify. But even a licensed gun holder of legal age cannot take guns on campus since the school is by law a “gun-free zone.”

“We call gun-free zones ‘disarmed victim zones,’” said Steve Khemthong of CCSU’s Riflery Club. As part of the Empty Holster Protest, gun club members put up posters inviting criminals to indulge in an on-campus shooting spree, saying potential victims have been “disarmed for your convenience.”

This does not surprise Suzanne Anglewicz of the National Rifle Association. “Every state where right-to-carry laws were passed, crime rates went down,” she said Thursday night when the gun club hosted NRA University at CCSU, a two-hour seminar discussing the history of the NRA in particular and American gun laws in general.

“What’s needed is not gun control, but crime control. Only law-abiding people obey gun laws. Gun control does not affect criminals. Washington, D.C. and Chicago show the failure of gun control. If gun control makes people safe, why is D.C. always one of the top five cities for murder rates in the country?”

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down gun bans in the District of Columbia and is considering a case that could do the same in Chicago.

The NRA says there is ample statistical evidence showing that crime rates go up when gun control is imposed and down when gun rights are expanded. At the NRA seminar, Anglewicz passed out copies of the NRA’s “Top Ten Gun Control Myths,” including myth number 6: ”Allowing citizens to carry firearms will lead to more crime.”

It states: “Violent crime rates since 2003 have been lower than anytime since the mid-1970s. Since 1991, 23 states have adopted RTC (right-to-carry) laws, the number of privately owned guns has risen by nearly 70 million, and violent crime is down 38 percent. In 2006, the most recent year for which complete data are available, RTC states had lower violent crime rates, on average, compared to the rest of the country (total violent crime by 26 percent; murder 31 percent; robbery 50 percent, and aggravated assault 15 percent.)”

Asked about the Empty Holster protest, CCSU President Jack Miller said he supported the on-campus gun ban, but wouldn’t elaborate.

“I support the ban for the obvious reasons,” he said.

If state law allowed guns on campus, most students would not have weapons because a person must be 21 and complete a rigorous process to get a Connecticut gun permit.

Still, Miller said, “I don’t think it would be a good idea.”

During the “NRA University” Seth Waugh from the NRA discussed the pros and cons of various forms of pro-gun activism: write your legislators, call your legislators, volunteer for campaigns — and during the question and answer period, one man in the audience raised his hand and said, almost plaintively, “Connecticut is a very blue state, and I feel like calling my legislator would be a waste of time — the legislators have already made up their minds.”

Waugh nodded. “You might waste a phone call, but you can work to get [the legislators] un-elected. That’s the best way to change their vote.”