JAMES W. KING: Campus carry law would offer students protection

I disagree with the perspective and opinion presented in the recent letter to the editor concerning campus carry of firearms. Campus Carry legislation, HB 859, is now in the Georgia State Senate. It was passed by the House by an overwhelming 113 to 59 vote. This bill is in response to the usual product of Gun Free School zones which is violent crime including school shootings.

He asks, “If your child is going to college in Georgia next fall would you feel better knowing he or she is protected by a stranger walking next to them with a hidden gun”? My answer is a definite yes. My daughter attends the University of Georgia and I wish someone with a concealed handgun could be close by everywhere she goes.

ConcealedCampus.org tracks campus carry laws throughout the country. They report that more than 150 U.S. college campuses have allowed concealed carry for a combined total of almost 1,500 semesters over the past 20 years. And yet, they say, not one of these campuses has seen a single resulting act of violence (including threats) or a single resulting suicide attempt.

Firearms are owned by approximately 70 million Americans and used thousands of times each year to prevent and stop crime in progress and save lives. My daughter, son, and wife are alive today because my wife had a handgun in 1989. She prevented an attempted sex crime. That night the criminal abducted an unarmed woman and cut her throat after raping her.

JAMES W. KING

Albany