Number of students fed up with mandated defenselessness growing rapidly

An article yesterday in the Mount Vernon News shows that the movement to end mandated defenselessness on college campuses is gaining momentum.

Since the tragic string of college campus shootings across the country, students have organized a national campaign to allow handguns in classrooms. Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, an Internet-based organization, is claiming to have over 15,000 members nationwide [Update: according to SCCC's website, that number is now over 18,000, as of Feb. 25th].

This is welcome news, indeed, and grassroots at its finest.

The Brady Campaign, of course, disputes both of those assertions. The Brady Bunch's Peter "Don't call me Petey" Hamm (the individual who told college students who objected to the trampling of their Constitutionally guaranteed fundamental human right of the individual to keep and bear arms to "drop out of school), in fact, accuses SCCC of being no more than another arm of the all-powerful "gun lobby."

But Peter Hamm, communication director for the Brady Campaign to Stop Gun Violence, is concerned that the group is the latest tool of the powerful gun lobby.

"We know very clearly that they were organised and they are funded by the gun industry, by the companies that are selling the guns," he said.

"This is not some spontaneous, grassroots organisation.

"There are more members than there were before Virginia Tech because the gun industry is spending more money to enlist more young people to help them spread the word, that if only we had more guns in America, we'd have less of a gun violence problem."

As SCCC media coordinator Scott Lewis quickly pointed out, Petey was, to put it bluntly, lying.

“A few small gun shops have donated holsters for students to use in our Empty Holster Protests, and the Front Sight Firearms Training Institute, located in Nevada, sent us three gift certificates that we’re going to auction to raise money. And after SCCC started making national news, a couple of months ago, the NRA sent me a hat and a T-shirt. But other than that, we’ve never received anything from the gun industry or the gun lobby. So far, our entire operating budget has come out of the pockets of our members—mostly poor college students who strongly believe in this cause. About a month ago we opened a bank account and started accepting donations, to help raise the money we need to incorporate. So far we’ve raised a combined total of $610.02, from online donations and T-shirt sales.”

I've been remiss, and done nothing to promote this important movement. I'll be adding some links in the sidebar today. The next nationwide empty holster protest, by the way, is set for April 21st.