In honor of Constitution Week, the Young Americans for Liberty group at Etown visited the Trop Gun Shop shooting range on Tuesday, Sept. 16.
After a safety briefing and gun familiarization class, 16 students had the chance to freely shoot in six lanes that were donated by the gun shop. Both gun supporters and those opposed to guns were invited for a fun time. While a few of the students were apprehensive in the beginning, by the end of the event, they were much more comfortable with the idea of shooting actual firearms.
“I was afraid of them because I did not know how to work them,” junior Elizabeth Martin, a member of the club who attended the event, said. “I thought I would hurt myself shooting it because of the backfire.” She felt much more comfortable after the course that the gun shop provided. The event was a success, and the students not only enjoyed their time shooting but also learned about gun safety and means of proper self-defense.
This year, Constitution Week lasts from Sept. 17-24. Constitution Week is a time for Americans to commemorate the signing and adoption of the United States Constitution.
The group visited a shooting range in order to express their rights as written in the Second Amendment. “The right to bear arms” grants all Americans of legal age the ability to use firearms for purposes that include self-defense.
Every year, the Young Americans for Liberty will celebrate Constitution Week by exercising the rights granted in the amendments of the Constitution. Last year, the Young Americans for Liberty hosted an event that allowed all Elizabethtown College students to voice their opinions on the question “What don’t you like about government?” In doing so, students exercised their right in the first amendment, which allows all U.S. Citizens the freedom of speech.
The Young Americans for Liberty is a libertarian/ conservative group on campus that is dedicated to promoting the philosophy of liberty by education of the Elizabethtown community and advocating for individual rights and a constitutionally limited government.
In an interview with senior Justin Greiss, president of the Elizabethtown Young Americans for Liberty club, he described the second amendment as “fundamental to a free society. Gun control merely takes guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens, creating victims, not safety. It allows citizens to demonstrate personal responsibility in protection of themselves, their property and their families.”
It is the stance of the Young Americans for Liberty that gun control efforts are not only attempting to infringe on the rights of American citizens, but are endangering the lives of Americans and setting off a chain reaction of gun violence. The official Libertarian Party website states that “banning guns will make guns more expensive and give organized crime a great opportunity to make profits in a new black market for weapons. Street violence will increase in new turf wars. Criminals will not give up their guns. But, many law abiding citizens will, leaving them defenseless against armed bandits.”
While many colleges have guidelines prohibiting students from carrying concealed weapons, a movement to allow students to carry guns on college campuses is growing among liberty-oriented young adults. Many believe that allowing concealed carry would have helped limit the casualties or essentially help avoid campus massacres such as Virginia Tech and University of Texas. If given proper safety courses such as the one provided at the Trop shooting range event, college guidelines allowing concealed carry could allow for a much safer college campus.
