title:  ‘Responsible Gun Owner’ Who Had Never Fired One Gets Concealed Permit In A Single Day
text: Today s lesson in the horrors of how easily a person can obtain and legally carry a firearm come from   big surprise   Texas. For two weeks now the Lone Star State has been imposing its ammosexuality on not just the residents who feel the need to keep an arsenal at home but on the college campus communities as well.That s right Like it or not   and most colleges say  not,   campus carry  has become a reality. Now any student over 21 with a legal concealed carry permit can carry a loaded weapon onto any college campus across the state. Texan lawmakers, proving they are dumb as stumps, have decided that would be the best way to curb the onslaught of campus shootings.Some people may say,  well, at least they have to be properly trained. Concealed carry permits come with a safety training course.  While that may sound nice  it s true on paper   in reality it s far more frightening.University of Texas at Austin student Zachary Stone, in preparation for a debate on the issue of  campus carry,  decided to go out with zero experience, having never fired a gun before and see what it took to get the concealed carry permit necessary to carry at school. He chronicled his experience for The New York Times and it is absolutely horrifying.The class required is a 6-hour course where you learn such important rules as  you can only shoot in self-defense.  No vigilante justice, not to intervene in a crime, and certainly not to stop someone from running away.  That would be murder,  his instructor told him. Stone says everything he needed to learn to pass the written part of the test, which was basically a list of where you can carry a concealed weapon, he learned in the last 10 minutes. He got a 100 on the written test.When it came time for the live-fire portion of the test, Stone was a wreck: Fire! I shot. The gun flew back. My neighbors each hit the center, but I missed a foot too high. Fire! I didn t realize I d have to shoot again so soon. I hadn t taught myself how to aim yet, and I wanted a few seconds to learn from the first shot. I also hadn t learned how to deal with the recoil. Anxiously, I pointed and shot   a few seconds after my neighbors. I still missed.That s when the instructor yelled at me.  You need to line up your sights!  I had no idea what that meant. He explained that for me to aim properly the dot at the front of the gun needed to be inside the post at the back of the gun.That was remarkably useful information. Fire! My next shot hit the center  X. Stone found himself being screamed at every step of the way, because he had no idea what he was doing. Lining up his sights paled in comparison to the reloading process, which required him to eject the magazine   something he had no clue how to do:I tugged on the magazine. It didn t move, so I pulled harder. I pulled as hard as I could, nervous to put so much force on a gun   empty or not.I called out to the instructor.  My magazine s stuck! Show me. Try to pull it out. That really shouldn t happen. I pulled on the magazine for the instructor.  You need to push the release,  he said. What s that?  I asked. The button. I pushed something. No. The button,  he said.That did the trick.Keep in mind that this young man had already passed the written portion of the test and was now on his way to being a  responsible gun owner  legally licensed to carry a concealed weapon to school. After repeating the live-shooting portion until 50 rounds had been fired each, it was time to tally the score and see if Zachary had the marksmanship necessary to be considered safe enough for public places.To pass, you need 175 out of 250 points. If you fail, you get two more chances. I did pretty well in the end   I got 216 points.The targets are huge; the distances close. In 2014, 99.7 percent of those who applied were given licences to carry concealed in Texas. As Stone proved, it s nearly impossible to fail. After less than one day s time, with a rented gun and absolutely zero real training, Zachary Stone had a permit to bring a gun to class.At his debate, after telling the story, he asked one question that the pro-gun crowd would struggle with: Given that the system allows me   lacking firearm experience   to get a license, would you be comfortable if we sat with each other in class, upon learning I m secretly carrying a gun? The system sucks.Featured image via Wikipedia