Dr. John Lott has a brand new op-ed within the Union Chief with New Hampshire state Consultant Samuel Farrington (R), who’s the first sponsor of the Campus Carry invoice that might be voted on this coming week within the state Senate Judiciary Committee.
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Information media protection not often mentions it, however mass public shooters have repeatedly defined of their manifestos that they search to assault “gun-free zones.” Because the New Hampshire State Senate Judiciary Committee considers eliminating gun-free zones at public universities, a lot of the controversy focuses on what may go unsuitable if individuals are allowed to hold. Opponents are repeating the identical warnings made when the state adopted right-to-carry, later expanded it, and enacted Constitutional Carry. Every time, critics predicted catastrophe—and every time, they had been unsuitable.
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The campus-carry debate rests on concern, however different states have already got these legal guidelines, so we don’t should guess about their results.
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Final fall, the Annunciation Catholic College shooter in Minneapolis spelled it out in his manifesto: “I just lately heard a rumor that James Holmes, the Aurora theater shooter, might have chosen venues that had been ‘gun-free zones.’ I’d most likely purpose the identical manner…Holmes needed to verify his victims can be unarmed. That’s why I and plenty of others like faculties a lot.”
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These attackers could also be loopy, however they aren’t silly. They plan their deaths to maximise consideration, they usually know that killing extra victims brings extra protection. That’s why they select locations the place victims are left defenseless.
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It’s no accident that 93% of mass public shootings happen in gun free zones by which civilians aren’t allowed to hold firearms. The Nashville Covenant College shooter admitted she averted one other website as a result of it had an excessive amount of safety. “There was one other location that was talked about, however due to a menace evaluation by the suspect of an excessive amount of safety, they determined to not,” Nashville Police Chief John Drake defined. Nobody at Covenant carried a gun to combat again.
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In 2022, ten folks had been murdered in a Buffalo grocery retailer. The attacker made the identical calculation, writing in his manifesto: “Areas the place CCW permits are outlawed or prohibited could also be good areas of assault.” Many different killers have written almost similar phrases.
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So why not station extra cops at faculties? Sheriff Kurt Hoffman of Sarasota County, Fla., defined why that strategy falls quick: “A deputy in uniform has a particularly tough job in stopping these assaults. These terrorists have enormous strategic benefits in figuring out the time and place of assaults. They will anticipate a deputy to depart the realm, or choose an undefended location… My deputies know that we can’t be in every single place.”
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We will look to different states to dismiss the unfounded opposition to HB1793. Eleven states at present prohibit public universities from being “gun-free zones”, and we now have a long time of knowledge.
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Individuals fear about college students getting drunk and capturing others, however nobody can level to a single instance of that taking place. They fear a few allow holder getting mad at a professor or one other pupil and shoot others or discourage educational discourse, however once more, they’ll’t level to any instance of that taking place. We additionally hear from them that New Hampshire would change into a “wild west shootout”, however but once more, critics can’t again up that declare.
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Issues about suicides come up as properly, however right here too, critics elevate the chance with out figuring out a single documented case the place it has occurred by a allow holder on a university campus.
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Some wish to ban permitted hid handguns from dorms, however Utah, which has allowed weapons in dorms since 2004, hasn’t seen an issue.
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Maybe the most well-liked argument made by those that oppose HB1793 is that school college students are too immature and never absolutely developed, so they may by no means be trusted with firearms. A examine by the Crime Prevention Analysis Middle reveals college-age allow holders in Michigan, Nevada, and Texas are no less than as accountable as older allow holders. Gun management advocates preserve making an attempt to make the most of the general public’s concern of the unknown, however they’ve persistently been confirmed unsuitable with hid carry. This time is not any totally different.
Samuel Farrington and John R. Lott, Jr., “‘Gun-free’ Campuses are a Peril,” Union Chief (Manchester, New Hampshire), April 26, 2026.
