Firearms deter crime

"Notice to rapists, muggers, kidnappers, psychopaths, etc.: For your convenience and safety, students, faculty, staff and visitors on this campus are not allowed to carry firearms to defend themselves." Incredibly, this is the banner some educators and newspaper columnists would unwittingly hang on our schools and universities.

The crime-deterrent effect of legally carried firearms is real and is confirmed by published academic studies (in the Journal of Criminal Justice, etc.). It's simple: Criminals are reluctant to attack someone they fear may be armed and able to defend themselves. To deny our schools this deterrent effect is foolish and an invitation for trouble.

No one in Utah, or the United States, has ever been killed or injured in a school by an honest citizen with a legally permitted concealed firearm (the only firearms a "gun ban" would eliminate). Educators and columnists should stop seeking "a cure for which there is no known disease" and base their opinions on facts and figures as the majority of our legislators have, rather than on naive and simplistic emotions from the top of their heads.

Richard Turner

Heber City