Idahoans: The Time For Talk Is Over

Idahoans: The Time For Talk Is Over

The Senate State Affairs Committee chose to reject S.1381 on Wednesday. Here's the letter that I just sent to members of that committee:

I've taught at BSU. My wife teaches there. My daughter and son-in-law attend there. I am very concerned about their safety.

I'm not just another Idahoan. I have a long publication history related to the history of weapons regulation in America. See here for a list of my six published books, and here for scholarly journal articles.

I am writing my seventh book right now, a history of deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill. There's a reason that we didn't use to have regular mass murders in America--and it is because of the intentional destruction of the public mental health system in the 1970s. But since no one wants to deal with THAT problem (which would solve a bunch of other problems at the same time, not just this violence problem), the only realistic choice left is to allow concealed weapon permit holders to carry on campus. S.1381 was actually a good bit broader than that, and I had some objections to it for that reason. But we are fast reaching the point where we do not have the luxury of asking, "What would be the best solution? And how can we achieve that sometime in the next fifty years?"

Enough pandering to the university administrators and the Idaho Statesman. We've got a problem, it is a crisis, and it needs to be solved NOW.

Idahoans, let them know how you feel. Click here to email them.