A justified school shooting in Florida

The liberty-hating fanatics of Moms Demand Action have been fighting so hard against guns on college campuses not because they fear another Virginia Tech (or even a Purdue) where criminals use a weapon on campus, but a narrative-undermining defensive gun use carried out by a student, staffer, or faculty member. Tales of “good guys with guns” preventing crimes on campuses destroy the very narrative that created and sustains them.

Advertisement

An example of what they fear most has come to pass in the form of a defensive gun use on a Florida college campus:

One person was shot today and a second injured on the Palm Bay campus of Eastern Florida State College following a fight between a student and two men.

The incident occurred shortly before 2 p.m. in the campus parking lot when a student who was in his car was approached by two men who pulled up in another vehicle.

One of the men got out of the car and began beating the student with a pool cue. The student pulled a handgun from his car, shooting and wounding the man in the chest.

Campus Security officers were on the scene within seconds and Palm Bay Police arrived about one minute later, securing the area.

The shooting victim and injured student were taken to local hospitals for treatment. The student was later released and the shooting victim was listed in stable condition.

The student who defended himself has been identified as Landrick Hamilton, and he’s in sort of a legal twilight zone regarding the legality of having his gun in his car on campus.

A EFSC spokesman is threatening expulsion, but I think the school is bluffing, and even if they follow through, Hamilton did himself a favor by the old “I’d rather be judged by twelve than carried by six” standard.

Advertisement

Here’s why I think EFSC is bluffing with their expulsion threat.

A Florida appeals court ruling last week struck down a University of North Florida policy that banned keeping firearms in cars on campus, though a similar ban is still in place at Eastern Florida State College. Presumably, the appellate court’s decision applies specifically only to UNF, but there seems to be the strong likelihood that if authorities go after Hamilton for technically violating the EFSC policy, they’ll simply have the policy ripped to shreds using the UNF case as precedent. In other words, it seems likely that the only way EFSC gets to keep their ban intact is if they refuse to actually enforce it, and I suspect that is precisely what they’ll do for the short term. They’ll officially leave the full ban in place and prosecute cases if they find a gun outside of a student’s vehicle (in a dormitory or classroom building), but I don’t think you’ll hear much in the short-term about student guns in cars until they have a chance to study the UNF decision and consider what revisions they need to make in their own policies to comply with the law.

John Lott says that the school overreacted by going into a full lockdown over the isolated incident that was immediately contained by EFSC and Palm Bay police, and I completely agree.

Advertisement

It’s part of a culture of cowardice being instilled by leftists wherever they dominate (such as academia), treating simple firearms as if they have the blast radius and fallout potential of nuclear weapons. They’ve actually frightened themselves to an absurd degree, and now treat firearms with the same sort of superstitious paranoia that the population of Salem Massachusetts once treated young women and widows.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Advertisement
Advertisement