My Article

I had my article printed in the Sunday, May 25th News Tribune. Please feel free to pick up a copy, read it, and comment based on your own personal views. I have included a copy of the article below.


Tacoma, WA - Sunday, May 25, 2008

Students with guns could save lives


MATTHEW THOMAS CORNWALL
Last updated: May 25th, 2008 01:25 AM (PDT)

I’m a junior at the University of Washington in Seattle. I also possess a concealed weapons permit and own a registered handgun.
With the tragedy at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University still fresh in my head, I cannot help but feel the need to protect myself.

Seung-Hui Cho succeeded in his mission to kill as many people as he possibly could – 33 to be exact, including himself.

He understood that he would be the only student with a gun and that he had plenty of time to act before the police were to arrive.

Let’s say, in hindsight, that students had been allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus.

If Cho had been fully aware that he wouldn’t be the only student with a gun, would he have chosen to act? Would this have been enough to prevent the deaths of 32 innocent students and professors last April?

The University of Washington send e-mails to students letting them know whenever a violent crime takes place anywhere near the campus. As much as this is appreciated, it does nothing to deter or prevent these acts of crime from taking place.

In April a weeklong protest called the Empty Holster Protest took place on campus. This was an attempt to urge university officials to change the current laws forbidding students to carry even licensed weapons on campus. Nothing changed.

I like to spend my after-class hours in the library reading and doing research. I usually don’t leave the library until 1 or 2 in the morning, and when I do it’s a one-mile walk home in the dark. If I own a registered handgun and possess a concealed weapons permit, I should have the right to protect myself as I see fit.

Let’s say, hypothetically, that I get shot and robbed after leaving the library early one morning. I could have protected myself but was unable to do so because the University of Washington does not allow weapons on campus.

Would the university accept the blame, knowing that I could have protected myself but wasn’t allowed to? Couldn’t because of its policy on weapons?

If a student carrying a licensed weapon had stopped Seung-Hui Cho’s killing spree, would the student carrying the handgun be punished or heralded as a hero?

Violent crimes involving guns are rarely carried out by responsible registered gun owners.

In fact, concealed weapons permit holders are five times less likely to commit a gun-related crime, according to the Journal of Legal Studies.

However, because we feel the need to protect ourselves we are viewed as gun-toting, right-wing nuts. This assumption couldn’t be further from the truth.

Criminals successfully attack citizens because many of them refuse to protect themselves and easily give in to a criminal’s demands.

If more responsible citizens were to carry handguns, it would lower crime rates drastically.

By not protecting ourselves we are enabling criminals.

Is the University of Washington willing to empower its students in order to prevent another massacre like Columbine, Virginia Tech or Northern Illinois? Or its leaders willing to gamble their reputation on the ignorance of their trust?

Matthew Thomas Cornwall is a Puyallup High School graduate.

Originally published: May 25th, 2008 01:25 AM (PDT