To the Editor:
In reply to an article in the Friday, Feb. 17, 2017 issue of the The Torrington Telegram run as:
“Gun bills clear Senate committee”
As the President of the Eastern Wyoming College, Dr. Rick Patterson appears more concerned about those elected to govern community colleges in the state losing their control over those individual community colleges and insurance rates.
Everyone serving or that served in the military was trained with weapons, their use and safety. Concealed permit holders, if they did not serve in the military, are required to demonstrate to a law enforcement officer the safety and handling of their personal gun and prove their ability to hit the target a minimal number of times.
Applicants for concealed carry permits also undergo rigid background investigations. Concealed carry permit holders are usually the safest people to be around due to their training. In numerous cases, it has been the concealed carry permit holder that has “saved” a life and prevented serious crimes from occurring.
A person carrying concealed on a college campus with a concealed carry permit will never draw their gun except where imminent danger to that person or another person is in occurrence. There are many known situations, especially at college campuses and universities, where young women were defenseless and were raped. That, of course, is only one example for carrying armed.
It is only a naïve person in this day and age that would think, “It can’t happen here.” How many were those schools and institutions of higher education that held those same thoughts and learned the harsh reality of real life today. Where is the trustee, then?
I have also known police officers that had been careless and fooling around with disregard to gun safety because they thought they knew better and they “never” leave a forgotten round in a shotgun or handgun. It is a small percentage of officers that have faced those situations.
To me, the real concern is the personal safety and protection of every individual on campus, at any institution, including staff that could potentially find themselves in life-threatening situations which can happen anywhere at any time and not whether a trustee or trustees have governing control at the time or the insurance rates of the educational institution.
There is nothing more valuable than an individual life, including the dollar.
Richard W. Hobbs,
Torrington
