Hey all, I met Codename46 and his fellow UT SCCC members last night (University of Texas Students for Concealed Carry on Campus) at this event, furnished the cash that some of the forum members sent me via Pay Pal, and listened to John Lott's presentation. This is a great group of young men and women working hard to bring this very important issue to light on college campuses. In spite of the morning's events on campus and their financial backing dropping out, they soldiered on and made this event happen. Kudos to them for their efforts ....
Also, just wanted to let y'all know how appreciative they were of the donations. And to encourage more forum members here to get involved and support whichever Texas SCCC chapter you prefer (there are chapters at most of the larger public universities in Texas, I believe). This is a dedicated group that is working hard to push this issue to the forefront. They need and deserve the support of all RKBA believers in Texas.
Also, some notes that interested me about Dr. Lott's presentation (I'd heard/read a lot of his information before, but below is some newer information - at least for me). I'm hoping codename46 and his buddies will have the video of the presentation posted on YouTube and linked here at some point:
* On employee parking lot issue and businesses' general anti-gun stance for employees, Lott blames OSHA regs for a lot of this, which is an angle I have not yet heard. He says he's talkd to numerous higher ups at big companies who don't want to ban guns from workplace, but say OSHA regs could wind up putting the company in hot water if something went wrong. He was specifically answering a question about bank employees being told to react passively to a bank robbery.
* On Lott's personal opinion of how to improve Texas CHL
1. Lower fees
2. Reduce training requirements
* Interesting stat on what Lott calls "hot burglaries" (basically resident is home when burglar enters) ... only 13% of all home burgarlies in US are "hot" - in England with handgun ban and no right to self defense in the home .... 60% of all home burgarlies are "hot" .... also of convicts interviewed in both countries, US criminals spend twice as long "casing" a home as criminals in England do
* In the last few decades, where did the worst two high school shootings in the world occur? .... Germany
* Israeli experience - before Israel started allowing civilian concealed carry in 1972, Islamic terrorist most often used machine guns for terrorist attacks - basically walk into a crowded public place and open fire with 5 or 6 men with automatic weapons .... after 1972, more use of bombs. No "technological" advancement at that time to make bombs a better choice after 72 than it was before 72 . Also Israelis tried huge build up of police presense, but found that terrorists either waited for a window of opportunity when police were not in vicinity OR they simply shot the police (who are obviously OPEN CARRYING) first, then killed everyone else. This convinced the Israelis to allow concealed carry.
* Armed commercial airline pilots - from 1920s until 1960s, commercial airline pilots were REQUIRED to carry sidearms on all US flights .... until 1979 it was voluntary. After 1979 it was no longer allowed. Now it is again voluntary after events of 9/11