In response to Brian Marceau’s column published on Jan. 11, 2013
First, Mr. Marceau claimed that conservatives “lost” because Romney lost. That is just the presidential campaign. How, exactly, did conservatives “lose” an entire election when they gained seats in the House of Representatives? Let us not forget that the competition for the federal god-chair is not the only indicator of national mood.
Second, focusing on the supposed difficulty of arming teachers is merely a logical fallacy distracting from the main issue: school safety. Would Mr. Marceau kindly provide information on how successful school security in Texas, Ohio, and Utah is before he blindly bashes school security in those states?
Third, Mr. Marceau displays willful ignorance of the use of statistics by citing the odds of getting shot in American public schools: 1 in 1,600,000. Whether true, overstated or understated — this proves absolutely nothing as to whether or not schools could be made safer. It also is merely a projection, not a statistic.
Finally, Mr. Marceau accuses Mr. LaPierre of misfiring, yet simultaneously cites that 8 percent of all attacks are stopped by police gunfire. Note: this is all attacks, not just school attacks, and is therefore not an applicable statistic. He then proceeds to say that “our schools don’t lack police presence.” What he fails to realize is that police gunfire does stop attacks.
What he fails to apply is that the current rate of crimes stopped by police gunfire doesn’t include the number of crimes stopped by private citizen gunfire. What he fails to consider is whether increasing security via privately owned guns would stop more attacks. Mr. Marceau, why don’t you actually find some ammunition before you attempt to shoot down common sense?
Andrew Engel
Undergraduate,
Mechanical Engineering