Why?

For the same reason I’m against the death penalty.

If some asshole with a gun started shooting kids in a school, and a teacher whipped out her 45 and blew his head off, I’d be happy that happened.

When they pumped lethal fluids into Timoth McVeigh’s body and killed him, I grinned.

But I don’t want that teacher carrying a gun and I don’t want the state to execute it’s prisoners, because I want to live in a civilized society.

I want my society to be better, more ethical, more moral, more thoughtful, more just, and more progressively transformed than its very citizens. I want to live in a society where people who blindly and blithely and often inarticulately rant that carrying machines designed primarily to kill other humans is some sort of right, or even responsibility, when it really is just a sport, a hobby, a game with toys, are looked at for what they are: Immoral and dangerous misanthropes. Or at best selfish boys playing with their stupid toys.

2. “They tend to NOT involve guns that are carried by the individuals involved. They are guns packed in the glove compartment of someone’s car in the parking lot”
That is precisely because the areas in question are “gun free” zones… which usually only means that no law-abiding person will have one on them should the need (God/FSM forbid) ever arise. For some strange reason, it doesn’t seem to deter the people who bring them onto campus to shoot people. Maybe the signs need to be bigger and/or more numerous, I don’t know. I’d love to see an analysis of that, by the way… how many school shooters just didn’t see the signs.

3a. “One needs to consider… Generally nothing ever happens with them.”
Agreed.

3b. “In other words, it may or may not be a good idea for people to be toting guns in their gloveboxes.”
*Completely* agree. I’d much rather be able to carry my gun on me (or even just take it into the building with me and leave it in my office) than leave it in my car. But that is presently as close to my person as state law will allow me to bring it. 🙁

Interesting that you should say that. It probably isn’t true (I’ll count it as your biased conjecture). But what IS true is that when there is a shooting, like the one cited here, reporters have a very hard time finding out where the gun came from. It is my habit to contact reporters writing about these stories and ask them this, and every single time so far that is what I’ve found.

Apparently, finding out that the gun was not properly locked down in some gun-nut’s home is not something “they” want us to know about.

Regarding these school shooting stoppages: Yes, they are interesting example, and important considering the topic at hand. The key features of these events seem to be:

1) They are very rare.

2) They tend to NOT involve guns that are carried by the individuals involved. They are guns packed in the glove compartment of someone’s car in the parking lot

3) One needs to consider what guns in glove compartments generally end up being used for. I know lots of people who keep handguns in their glove compartments. Generally nothing ever happens with them. But I’d love to know how many glovebox guns are used in, say, bar shootings and that sort of thing. How many of the illegal guns on the street were obtained because someone with a rock broke into a car and took them. How many accidental shootings or suicides involved the glovebox guns? In other words, it may or may not be a good idea for people to be toting guns in their gloveboxes. I’d love to see an analysis of that.

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Making+our+schools+safe%3A+the+Virginia+Tech+shooting+rampage…-a0164255784

(Also in my post above, “commonly held review” should have been “commonly held view” — sorry about that.)

Instructive is what occurred in 2002 at another Virginia college. At Appalachian Law School in Grundy, Nigerian immigrant Peter Odighizuwa began a rampage, shooting to death a dean, a professor, and a student, and wounding three students. Upon hearing the gunfire, law students Tracy Bridges and Mikael Gross, independently, dashed to their cars to retrieve their own handguns. Bridges returned with a .357 magnum and Gross a 9 millimeter to find Odighizuwa exiting from a campus building. From different angles both Bridges and Gross leveled their weapons at Odighizuwa. Bridges yelled to the killer, “Drop your gun!” Odighizuwa did so and several students then pinned him to the ground. End of rampage.

Please note that these incidents of defensive gun use in school shootings are not easy to dig up, because they seem to be under-reported. Apparently it is a commonly held review that the defensive use of a gun during such shootings is an unimportant detail that may be … overlooked. From the same source as the above:

Odighizuwa’s shooting spree was widely reported. It was also widely reported that he was subdued by Appalachian students. What went mostly unreported, however, was the fact that gun-toting students were responsible for Odighizuwa having a sudden change of attitude. John Lott John Richard Lott Jr., a well-published researcher and writer on gun issues, said that in a Lexis-Nexis search he found that only four of 208 stories mentioned that Bridges and Gross had guns. Other researchers had similar results. On the other hand, many of the stories did mention that Odighizuwa was distraught over failing grades and faced cultural differences. Psychoanalysis of the perpetrator was evidently more important than a clear narrative of events.

I’ll post the URL of the source of the above information separately. It may be held up in the spam trap, and I don’t want that to delay the substance of the information I am providing to you. You can also look up this source yourself by Googling for “Making Our Schools Safe” by Roger D. McGrath, Ph.D., available online at The Free Library Dot Com.

You also missed this in the more detailed third link:

Woodham … shot until he heard sirens, and then ran to his car. His plan, authorities subsequently learned, was to drive to nearby Pearl Junior High School and shoot more kids before police could show up.

But Myrick foiled that plan. He saw the killer fleeing the campus and positioned himself to point a gun at the windshield. Woodham, seeing the gun pointed at his head, crashed the car. Myrick approached the killer and confronted him.

In short, your “probably” conjecture is contradicted by the information already provided.

Do you have any actual leg to stand on?

Do you have any actual examples?

I am sure any informed and interested source that goes into details will be disregarded as “biased,” but this is the incident that immediately leaps to mind:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_High_School_shooting

http://www.servinghistory.com/topics/Pearl,_Mississippi::sub::Pearl_High_School_Shooting

More details:

http://www.davekopel.com/2a/othwr/principal&gun.htm