Columbine Survivor Infuriates Liberals With Concealed Carry Legislation
The Columbine High School massacre was the incident that catapulted school shootings into the public consciousness, and was sadly used as inspiration for future deranged killers.
In the wake of a deadly school attack in Florida last week, the theme from many on the left is that every survivor of these types of incidents is united in their support of sweeping new gun control legislation.
As is often the case, however, the narrative isn’t really accurate — and a Columbine survivor named Patrick Neville is demonstrating that not everyone is on the “guns are the problem” bandwagon.
According to The Washington Times, Neville attended Columbine High School when the infamous 1999 shooting took place. Nearly 19 years later, he is now the Colorado House Minority Leader… and he’s using that political position to promote concealed carry laws that could help protect students in dangerous situations.
The Columbine survivor-turned-lawmaker has introduced HB18-1037, a bill that would allow certified concealed carry permit holders to be legally armed in Colorado schools.
“With certain exceptions, current law limits the authority of a person who holds a valid permit to carry a concealed handgun by prohibiting a permit holder from carrying a concealed handgun on public elementary, middle, junior high, or high school grounds,” explained the Colorado legislature’s summary of the proposed law. “The bill removes this limitation.”
Currently, people with a concealed handgun permit must keep their firearms locked away inside a vehicle while on school property. This means that even if a teacher is trained and prepared to defend students, they are kept defenseless against violent criminals — who tend to simply ignore the law.
“As a former Columbine student who was a sophomore during the shootings on April 20, 1999, I will do everything in my power to prevent Colorado families from enduring the hardships my classmates and I faced that day,” Patrick Neville explained.
“Time and time again we point to the one common theme with mass shootings, they occur in gun-free zones,” the lawmaker pointed out.
That is an extremely strong point that the gun control crowd seems to consistently ignore. Gun laws have done little if anything to stop previous mass shootings, which frequently occur where people are unable to defend themselves due to restrictive laws.
It’s worth pointing out that while the current anti-gun political climate has singled out AR-15 “assault rifles” and other similar weapons, the well-known Columbine incident happened in the middle of the Clinton-era Assault Weapons Ban, which did almost nothing to prevent the tragedy.
That law was signed in 1994 and didn’t expire until 2004. Despite this, the Columbine criminals used improvised explosives and several guns including two low-capacity shotguns to carry out their attack. In simple terms, the Assault Weapons Ban stopped nothing.
The reality is that assault rifles are used relatively rarely in violent crimes. Furthermore, as AR-15 sales skyrocketed after the Assault Weapons Ban expired, murders involving rifles have actually steadily declined, according to combined ATF and FBI data. Liberals refuse to even acknowledge these facts.
Representative Neville’s bill may have a snowball’s chance in hell of being passed in a Democrat-controlled legislature, but it’s an important reminder that not everyone is on the anti-gun bandwagon.
Some people recognize that disarming the populace will not help them, but that properly-placed, trained civilians can have a fighting chance against demented killers.
If America is serious about stopping these shocking incidents, we must take a hard look at facts, and consider effective solutions that go beyond raw emotion.
Please press “Share on Facebook” if you believe concealed carry can be part of the answer!
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