Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Sen. Thompson on campus firearms

Based on past positions, Sen. Fred Thompson can be expected to reveal education positions friendly to vouchers and unfriendly to any increased federal role in education. But in the early days of his still-undeclared exploration of a bid for the Presidency, Thompson is making news about guns-on-campus. In an April National Review Online piece he chastises universities such as Virginia Tech that forbid weapons on campus. The Virgnia Tech killer able to reload so many times, suggests Thompson, because no students in that hall were carrying weapons.

"Whenever I've seen one of those "Gun-free Zone" signs, especially outside of a school filled with our youngest and most vulnerable citizens, I've always wondered exactly who these signs are directed at. Obviously, they don't mean much to the sort of man who murdered 32 people just a few days ago."

While Thompson's National Review piece appeared to draw little attention at first, there's some evidence emerging that his gun comments have legs. Here, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen opines on Thompson and campus firepower.

Richard Whitmire

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