Colin Goddard knows something about guns on college campuses.

On April 16, 2007, Colin was a student at Virginia Tech when he was shot four times by a mentally disturbed armed classmate who killed 32 fellow students and faculty.

Colin survived his wounds that day, and has become an eloquent activist for sensible gun laws in this country. If you haven’t seen it yet, watch Colin’s story here:

All over America, ordinary citizens and elected officials have been listening to his story.

One of the issues Colin has spoken most forcefully about is an effort by the gun pushers to force colleges and universities to accept loaded, concealed firearms on their campuses.

In 2009, Colin teamed with other young people, college and university faculty and administrators, and campus police chiefs to fight these proposals in state legislatures across the country.

In one battle after another, the gun lobby was defeated after elected officials heard the arguments of new groups like Students for Gun Free Schools and young leaders in the gun violence prevention movement such as Colin, his friend Lily Habtu of Virginia – a fellow survivor of the Virginia Tech shooting who still carries bullet fragments in her jaw; John Woods of Texas, who lost his girlfriend at Virginia Tech; Brian Roach of Missouri, and hundreds of other young activists who were instrumental in defeating these ridiculous and dangerous proposals.

Although gun lobby-backed legislation was introduced in 12 states in 2009, not a single “guns on campus” bill was enacted into law, including failed proposals in Texas, Alabama, Missouri and Louisiana.

In fact, since the shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007, the gun lobby has suffered 34 consecutive defeats in trying to pass such legislation.  In addition, Colorado State University reversed its previous policy and now prohibits guns on its campuses.

Andy Pelosi, director of the organization Gun Free Kids, had it right when he explained, “There comes a point where the gun lobby’s agenda just becomes too extreme for state lawmakers to support.  Most lawmakers simply don’t want to have to explain the fact that they risked the safety of college students just to appease the radical ideology of the gun lobby.”

Colin Goddard has been a big part of this fight, as he personally campaigned in Missouri, wrote letters to Louisiana state legislators, and published op-eds in major Texas newspapers.  For example, in an opinion column for the Dallas Morning News explaining why Texas should reject a “guns on campus” bill under consideration there last spring, Colin recalled that when the shooting started on April 16, 2007:

[M]y whole class thought it was construction noise. Then I thought the killer was a police officer. I barely had time to make the [911] phone call. Anyone who thinks I could have gotten to a weapon and shot somebody I never fully saw watches too many movies.  Instead of putting more guns in that classroom two years ago, I would work toward removing the two that were there, in the hands of the shooter. Guns on campus were the problem two years ago, not the solution. And we have to solve the problem, not make more of them.

Legislators in Texas, Missouri and Louisiana listened to this courageous young man.  It’s time for more sensible politicians to put these “guns on campus” bills away for good.

Instead, elected officials should focus on another effort that Goddard and other young leaders have been advocating for: closing the loophole that allows dangerous people to buy assault weapons, semi-automatic pistols and other firearms at most gun shows from “private sellers” without first passing a Brady criminal background check.

You can see undercover footage that Colin filmed at gun shows across America documenting such dangerous gun sales practices in this remarkable video:

I’m grateful that 2009 was the second straight year when common sense policies on college campuses were upheld without exception.

We need to take more sensible steps to reduce gun violence in 2010.  That would make for a happier new year for us all.

(Note to readers: This entry, along with past entries, has been co-posted on bradycampaign.org/blog and the Huffington Post.)

When a baseball player goes 0-for-15 at the plate, fans call it a slump.

So, what do we call it when the NRA goes 0-for-15 in Statehouses across the country? As the New York Times showed in April, the gun lobby has found itself on defense this year, and its batting average in 2008 is unimpressive.

The best recent example of how things are changing on the gun issue are the gun lobby’s efforts to force guns into college campuses across the country. In 2008, these efforts failed across the board.

The gun lobby made “guns-on-campus” bills a big priority across America this year, and what do they have to show for it? A goose egg.

The roll of states that rejected these gun pushing efforts is quite interesting. Many are typically identified as part of the gun lobby’s base.

But “guns-on-campus” bills failed this year in Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington. Only two bills remain in the hopper – in Michigan and Ohio – but neither has moved in the last two years.

Forcing school administrators to allow guns on campus against their will is a bad idea that needed to be defeated. The NRA sent alert after alert to their members this year urging them to back “guns-on-campus,” but they still got zero bills passed.

Even legislators that previously received the organization’s backing rejected these proposals. Two key examples:

• “Guns-on-campus” legislation failed in the South Dakota Senate by a vote of 17-14 last February. Six “A-rated” NRA state senators voted against the bill.

• Similar legislation in the Indiana State Senate fell short of passage by one vote. Ten NRA-endorsed senators voted against the bill.

In many of these states, the bills didn’t even come to a vote.

Louisiana is the most recent example. College and university administrators, police officials, student body presidents – even the LSU football coach – came out against the idea. The bill’s sponsor couldn’t even get it to the floor for a vote.

The Police Chief at the University of Cincinnati, Chief Gene Ferrara, recently told CNN, “I don’t think the answer to bullets flying is to send more bullets flying. My belief is we ought to be focusing on what we do to prevent the shooting from starting.”

I couldn’t agree more. Arming college students is the wrong lesson to learn from Virginia Tech. What that tragedy should teach us is that we need to strengthen background checks so dangerous people like the mentally ill Virginia Tech shooter can’t easily obtain guns in the first place.

Forcing colleges to allow armed students on campus is a terrible idea.

Fifteen of America’s State Legislatures agree.

(Note to readers: This entry, along with past entries, has been co-posted on bradycampaign.org/blog and the Huffington Post.)

After nearly every concerned group of Louisiana students, administrators, university police – even the LSU football coach – came out against this crazy “solution in search of a problem,” the bill’s sponsor finally conceded defeat today.

He came up eight votes short in the Louisiana House, according to this report just in from the Shreveport Times:

BATON ROUGE — The effort to allow the carrying of concealed weapons on Louisiana’s college campuses was laid to rest today when the bill’s author decided not to push it to a vote.

Rep. Ernest Wooton, R-Belle Chasse, said he had the support of 45 House members but since 53 votes are needed to pass a bill in the House, he chose not to go forward.

“Put the bill on the calendar until next year,” Wooton asked House Clerk Butch Speer, signaling that the issue is dead for this session. Wooton pledged to re-introduce the bill next year.

With that action, Louisiana became the 16th state in which “guns on campus” legislation has failed this year. The only bill still active in the U.S. is in Ohio but no action has been taken since it was introduced in May 2007.

“This bill is not about students with guns on campus,” Wooton told the House. “This bill is about the right to carry a gun concealed.”

Louisiana proudly joins 15 other states in rejecting one of the worst ideas since elevator music: Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington (not exactly a “Who’s Who” of pro-gun control states).

As the state with the worst gun death rate in America – first in gun homicide, and in the top 20 for gun suicide – the Louisiana State Legislature clearly made the common-sense decision that loaded, hidden handguns on campus make students, faculty, staff and parents less safe, not more so.

For more information about why guns on campus is a terrible idea, read the Brady Center report, “No Gun Left Behind.”

Maybe LA State Rep. Ernest Wooton has the votes.

Yet this is at least the second time he’s delayed floor debate on his guns on campus bill, so maybe he doesn’t:

… The proposal has drawn widespread opposition from college and university officials and their campus security chiefs but Wooton, chairman of the Criminal Justice Committee, was able to move the bill out of committee on an 11-3 vote.

Similar bills introduced in other states have been defeated. [

Anticipating the bill would be debated as scheduled, Rep. Barbara Norton, D-Shreveport, and several other lawmakers spoke out against the bill on the Capitol steps.

"It's a bad day in America when we would have to stand here and fight a bill that would have students focus on whether the person next to them is carrying a gun rather on their studies," Norton said.

Rep. Herbert Dixon, D-Alexandria, said he agrees with college officials.

"The individuals who are charged with working with young people every day are saying this is a bad idea."

Rep. Rickey Hardy, D-Lafayette, said the legislators should "do everything we can to fight this bill. A gun is not an educational tool."

Hardy described proponents' arguments that armed students and faculty could avert school massacres, such as occurred at Virginia Tech, "a silly, illogical reason to allow students to tote guns on campus."

Rep. Roy Burrell, D-Shreveport, said he agrees "people have a right to bear arms, but there are restrictions." He questioned that if a "volatile situation" arose, "who would fire the first shot and who at?"

Former state Rep. Alphonse Jackson said "to say it is OK to bring guns into a classroom is to nurture violence and we have too much violence across our land."

As he returned to the House chamber anticipating debate of the bill, Hardy said "Let's go kill HB199."

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Sounds like a good idea. Who else is against this bill? The Daily Advertiser sums it up well:

… In an earlier editorial, we reported that the presidents of the University of Louisiana System and Community and Technical College System, campus police chiefs and the Louisiana Council of Student Body Presidents have expressed opposition to the bill.

We also feel it is worth repeating that 38 states ban firearms on school grounds. Eleven leave the decision up to individual schools, and no university in those 11 states allows concealed weapons. Only Utah allows concealed weapons on college campuses. This year, lawmakers in 15 states debated bills similar to Wooton’s, according to Savoie. The legislation was rejected in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Arizona, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Idaho and Washington. Even Virginia, home state of the worst college shooting tragedy in history, rejected similar legislation.

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Maybe we’ll know Monday whether Louisiana can add its name to the list.

Speaking of Louisiana, this student has a few questions her representatives in Baton Rouge ought to find good answers for, before they pass such a crazy law as allowing loaded, hidden handguns at college:

Please, don’t pass the college gun law.

I agree that it sounds good in theory. However, in reality it just wouldn’t work.

Scenario 1: Two drunken, angry students are fighting; one pulls his gun and fires on his friend.

Scenario 2: Students are taking a test. A man walks in with a gun pointed at the teacher. Student A looks up and draws his gun. Student B sees Student A draw a gun. Student B draws his gun and shoots Student A. Student C hears the shot and shoots Student B. The man with the gun shoots the teacher and Student C. While members of the class are busy shooting each other, the man with the gun leaves.

Scenario 3: Two drama students are rehearsing for a play with a plastic gun. A responsible, well-meaning student sees this and quickly fires on the drama student with the gun.

Can anyone guarantee that these sad scenarios would not come true if the gun bill is passed? The chances for disaster are far too great to allow this bill to become law.

Crystal Scouten
High school student
Baton Rouge

By the way, Crystal happens also to be joined by University Police across the state, the Louisiana Council of Student Body Presidents, the Presidents of the University of Louisiana System and Community and Technical College System, the State Commissioner of Higher Education, and even LSU football coach Les Miles – among many, many other Louisianans – in opposing the guns-on-campus bill.

Soon we’ll know if the Louisiana Legislature is listening.