NIU Shooting Irony

I was just watching the Today show, and as guests there were family and friends of one of the Northern Illinois University (NIU) fallen. A young woman, Julianna Gehant, who some years ago had set out after high school to see the world and serve her country.

According to the Chicago Tribune, she left Mendota, a rural town of 7,200 people about 80 miles west of Illinois, and joined the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Over the next 12 years, she worked as a military carpenter and traveled to far-flung places such as Bosnia and Laos. Her duties included building a school in Tonga and constructing barracks wherever the armed forces needed them.But as the Iraq war escalated, so did her family's fears for her safety. They worried about Gehant's security and urged her to leave the Army. They encouraged her to return to college, where they hoped her student status would prevent her from harm.

She enrolled at NIU, where firearms are banned, and while the administration says the campus is safe (this is what is told on most U.S. college campuses), in reality students are defenseless. Killers have come to know that college campuses, public schools, shopping malls, and in some cases, public/government buildings are filled with people who are not legally permitted the means to defend themselves. And criminals know law abiding people follow the law. Which makes these facilities rich with potential victims.

How ironic that a woman in the NIU lecture hall who was highly skilled in the use of building tools, was administratively denied access to a self-defense tool, the use of which she was highly trained.

Instead of shouts of "He's reloading, run!" perhaps there might have been shouts of "He's reloading, shoot him!"

But because of these antiquated "weapon free" policies on our college campuses, we'll never know.

It is a sad day at NIU. School administrators and Illinois lawmakers, dominated by the irrational gun regulations being driven by Cook County, have much to answer for. They owe the family and friends of Julianna Gehant an explanation. They owe explanations to all the NIU five: Julianna Gehant, Gayle Dubowski, Catalina Garcia, Ryanne Mace, Dan Parmenter, and 17 others who were seriously wounded in the criminal attack.

For the families of the dead, and the injured, I grieve for you all.