"Just into the second week of fall classes, a Idaho State University professor has literally shot himself in the foot and provided one answer to the question of 'What could go wrong?' on the growing number of college campuses that allow the concealed carry of firearms," a giddy Brandy Zadrozny opened her September 3 Daily Beast article, "The Concealed Carry on Campus Movement Shoots Itself in the Foot."
"The unnamed professor was teaching a class of roughly 20 students at the Physical Science building yesterday when his handgun—pocketed, but not holstered—accidentally discharged, Lieutenant Paul Manning of the Pocatello Police Department told The Daily Beast," she explained. Of course any concealed-carry instructor worth his salt would tell you that you should never carry a loaded firearm loose in your pocket, that it should always be properly holstered, but why let such a fact get in the way of a "See, I told you so," storyline.
In fact, at no point in her story did Zadrozny speak to a concealed-carry instructor who might give some good safety tips for avoiding accidental discharges. She did, however, close her brief article by turning to a college student and an Idaho State official who oppose concealed carry on campus:
Still others see the presence of guns on campus as a distraction at best, and at worst, a danger. One student, Angel Hernandez, told News21 when the Idaho law was enacted, “I went to Boise State to get an education; I didn’t go to Boise to go to a gun show.”
Idaho State University’s president Arthur Vailas, who himself opposed the campus carry legislation in the state legislature earlier this year, called yesterday’s incident “unfortunate,” telling the Idaho State Journal, “When they passed this law it was bound to happen.”
Even if concealed carry is banned on campus, there's nothing stopping gangbangers or other lawbreakers from carrying concealed anyway. And something tells me those geniuses aren't exactly the ones to follow all the proper safety guidelines to prevent accidental discharges. It is law-abiding citizens who take concealed carry classes and who take gun safety seriously who are more likely to be careful with weapons than criminals who don't care about gun laws and are forbidden by their prior convictions from owning legally.
There will always be exceptions to the rule, of course, like this incident in Idaho. But it's those exceptions which we can expect the media to glom onto as vindication of their anti-gun hysteria.
