Second Amendment Sisters, Inc.

On Monday, August 8^th, I attended a forum hosted by the Second Amendment Foundation and Students for Concealed Carry on Campus at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.  As a college student myself, I was intensely interested in the issue and was impressed by the caliber (no pun intended) of the speakers, many of whom were near my own age.  During the five hour long event, the audience was fortunate enough to hear the stories of concealed carry holders who have been victimized by gun violence after being legally (but not necessarily Constitutionally) disarmed, panels of academics and legislators, and speakers with a variety of backgrounds to offer their own unique points of view on the subject of concealed carry on college campuses.  The most interesting to me, though, and the focus of this article, was a debate between Colin Goddard of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and John Lott, who is the author of More Guns, Less Crime. 

Colin Goddard was shot during the shootings at Virginia Tech, and he was invited to speak so that at least one opposing viewpoint was represented at the forum.  He is due great admiration for his courage; it is not easy to stand in front of a crowd of people that is clearly of a different mindset.  For Mr. Goddard, it must have been like walking into a lion’s den.  It is comparatively easy to address an audience when you know that they support your ideas, but this was not the case for him.  Nonetheless, he spoke well and was professional and composed, and we should all be reminded by this that we should not reject a person simply because they disagree with us, but we should instead welcome their opinions and listen intently to what they say so that we may learn from it.