Ban "Gun Free Zones"

After the terrible shooting in Connecticut, the left immediately exploited the massacre to call for gun control.  They see every crime as an excuse to punish responsible gun owners and take away freedom.  Of course, the school already banned guns, and murder is illegal everywhere, but laws didn't stop the shooter.

There are lots of problems in the world with no good solutions, but this isn't one of them.  There is a simple policy change that could be implemented tomorrow that would nearly eliminate mass shootings.  It wouldn't cost any money and it wouldn't take away anyone's freedom.

The answer is to eliminate "gun free zones" and allow citizens to carry everywhere, without fear of prosecution.  John Lott reports the startling fact on mass killings:

Appearance on NPR: Sandy Hook Massacre Changes Gun Control Conversations

I'm just saying, you look around the world, at some point if it's just randomness, you know, and - you know, you would expect to see more than zero, right, in these cases, and the United States has only one case since 1950 where one of these multiple-victim public shootings, where more than three people have been killed, that's occurred in a place where guns were allowed.

There are two simple reasons for this.  One is that shooters pick locations where they can kill the most people, which means places where people are defenseless.  For example,

And I'll give you a simple example from this year. I mean any of the ones you point to from this year or past years are going to follow that, but look at the Colorado shooting that the governor is going to be coming on to talk about. You had seven movie theaters showing the Batman movie within a 20-minute drive of the killer's apartment.

Only one of those seven movie theaters posted a ban on concealed handguns. The killer didn't go to the movie theater that was closest to his home. There was one that was only 1.3 miles away. He didn't go to the largest one. In fact, one advertises itself quite openly as having the largest auditorium in the state of Colorado.

And you'd think if you wanted to go to one that would kill a lot of people, he'd go to the largest one on premiere night for the Batman movie. Instead, the one he went to was the only one that banned concealed handguns. And that happens time after time.

The second reason is that people who do try to commit mass shootings in locations that allow guns get shot or captured by citizens with guns.

Armed civilians really do capture, kill, stop mass shooters

Unfortunately, many people never learn no matter how much evidence there is.  Most states used to be "gun free zones" outside private property.  Many of these states have passed laws allowing concealed carry.  In every case, anti-gun folks howled about blood in the streets, but crime went down.  When the Supreme Court overturned Washington DC's gun ban, crime went down.  When Britain and Australia banned guns, crime went way up.

Israel has armed teachers and they eliminated terrorist shootings at schools.  Utah has allowed concealed carry in schools for years with no problems.

I laid out the same basic facts in 2007 after the Virginia Tech shooting.

End the Campus Gun Ban

But as Thomas Sowell writes, anti-gun folks never learn.

Invincible ignorance

If gun control zealots had any respect for facts, they would have discovered this long ago, because there have been too many factual studies over the years to leave any serious doubt about gun control laws being not merely futile but counterproductive.

The invincibly ignorant include Governor Snyder, who vetoed a bill that would have allowed people with concealed weapons permits to carry in previously prohibited locations if they received extra training.

Snyder vetoes concealed weapons bill; Bolger disappointed

The bill passed the state senate 27-11 and the house 68-41. All but one Republican (Matt Lori) and a few dems voted for it.

Between this and the gutting of the bill to repeal handgun licencing and registration (which he signed), we can officially conclude that Rick Snyder is anti-gun.

UPDATE: Coulter: We know how to stop school shootings