20 dead this month in Illinois spree killings, but the state's gun-grabbers will never get it: "How long does this have to happen? How many of my home state brethren have to die? When will people like Chicago Mayor Daley and Governor Blagojevich realize they are leaving their citizens at the whim of thugs and the deranged? The sad truth is they will never get it - they will never learn that their draconian gun policies don't work. Chicago leads the nation in murders nearly every year, yet Mayor Daley doesn't get that criminals know Chicagoans are disarmed. The same is true for colleges where students are easy victims, left to die in masse without the ability to defend their life. The ivory tower is instead becoming akin to the Town of London, where people go to die in tragic and often gruesome ways. Ever wonder why mass shootings don't take place at rallies in favor of the NRA? Ever wonder why people don't go on spree killings with a gun in Israel? It's because the common thugs and mentally deranged people know where to find defenseless victims. You would think the outcome of the recent church shootings in Colorado would make the point more clearly. But the anti-gunners don't get it now and never will."


Vulnerable schools need protection: "Thirty-nine students attend my American literature seminar this semester. Our classroom is the first one you see on the left, as you enter the unlocked humanities building. If a psychotic gunman were searching for a tight cluster of multiple bodies -- an easy target for seeking revenge, casting out demons, achieving immortality or whatever else his perverse purpose happens to be -- he would find my classroom door wide open. He could assume a position straddling the threshold and blocking the exit, so that he could fire at the trapped students at will, reload his weapon and fire once again. We would be sitting ducks in yet another American schoolhouse tragedy. But if I were packing a loaded automatic pistol in a shoulder holster beneath my jacket, we might have half a chance. I am no Rambo. I am a middle-age English professor with no military background. But as an outdoorsman, I have a passing acquaintance with the use of firearms, experience which could be refined to a skill of safety and competence, with adequate training."


Open carry in Utah? "If a bill proposed by Utah lawmakers passes, U students with concealed weapons permits won't have to cover up their guns when they go to class. Current U policy requires weapons carriers to keep their guns concealed, a position administrators argue is backed up by state law. House Bill 473 would amend the firearm code to ensure that permit holders are allowed to visibly carry firearms statewide, including the campuses of state universities and public schools. A committee of representatives in the Utah State Legislature unanimously passed the bill Monday. The measure will now move to the full House. U administrators are opposing the bill because they say allowing students and others to visibly display their firearms on campus would intimidate students, especially in light of recent "horrific shootings" on college campuses. "We're concerned about the feeling that could create on campus," said Kim Wirthlin, the U's vice president for government relations. "We believe that having students...carry their weapons in the open is not good policy." Wirthlin said allowing open carry on campus could cause the U to lose some of its faculty members. Gun-rights activists, including the Second Amendment Students of Utah, complain that the U's policy prohibiting open carry violates state law.