If any groups of people should be encouraged to carry weapons on American school campuses, one would think the U.S. Marines might be included in the fully vetted category. Not so. Jeffrey L. Maxwell recently found that out first hand.
When asked why he carried the weapons on campus, Maxwell said he was concerned about his and other students’ safety after the April 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech.
“When Marines hear gunfire, we don’t run from it. We run toward it,” Maxwell told KATU. “I kind of thought of myself as one of the good guys – the one who, if something happened at school, was going to step in and save everybody else.”
There are few groups of people trained more highly with firearms safety and handling than those who have served in the United States Marines.
To further add to the blind anti-gun stupidity that has been engendered in our civil society, Maxwell was told he would have to write a 10-page essay on the importance of following the law as well as be examined by a mental health professional to be re-admitted to the University. Frankly, one of the reasons I have pursued my bachelor’s and master’s degrees on-line is because I don’t have to sit in a gun free self-defense prohibited zone to learn. I’m not interested in being disarmed by bureaucrats. There was no law prohibiting Maxwell from having a gun for self-defense. There was only an administrative school rule.
The net effect of such rules is that mentally ill people or others who represent a threat to society are drawn to schools – they know that schools are one of the softest targets available for a killing spree. Societies spread memes like viruses, from one mind to another. Every kid who has ever thought of going on a killing spree has probably thought of doing it at school first. Malls are another place that make rules banning firearms – rules that only law abiding mentally sound people follow. This further exacerbates the situation when a lawbreaker or mentally unstable person decides to act out with firearms.
Police should have firearms. More importantly though, we should encourage an environment where any responsible adult is taught a mentality of self-defense and community involvement. If we teach people that only specialists can intervene when violence breaks out we are basically saying that we don’t want our citizens to act like citizens anymore. If our citizens are not citizens then they are subjects. Subjects are easy to manipulate, control and rule.
Concerned individuals may e-mail university President John Minahan or call (503)838-8888 and/or contact Polk County District Attorney Stan Butterfield. The Oregon Firearms Federation is accepting tax-deductible donations to the Jeffrey Maxwell Legal Defense Fund. Contributors should select “Oregon Firearms Educational Fund” and indicate specifically that the funds are intended for Jeffrey Maxwell’s case.
If you are in the minority of Americans who still believe that the citizen is the basic building block of society – the mold that everything else is made from – then please consider making a donation to a Marine who served his nation and wants to continue to be the kind of strong individual we need in this country. Without some herd dogs, the flock is easy prey. Groupthink is dangerous stuff when the memes are not logically sound. Citizens with gun permits should be allowed to carry guns everywhere.