Within minutes of the UCC shooting news breaking, Twitter lit up with right-wing accounts making the claim that UCC was a "gun-free zone." Watch CNN's "expert" make the claim with a straight face.
The entire gun-free zone claim is a right-wing canard.
But these references of "gun-free zones" represent a red herring because they rely on the assumption that more people carrying guns would stop mass shootings, when in reality there is no evidence to support such claims.
The overwhelming majority of mass shootings actually occur where guns are allowed to be carried. And according to an analysis of 62 public mass shootings over a 30 year period conducted by Mother Jones, not a single shooting was stopped by a civilian carrying a firearm. Mother Jones also found that gunmen do not choose to target locations because guns are not allowed, but rather other motives typically exist for choice of location, such as a workplace grievance.
UCC wasn't one of those zones, anyway.
Umpqua Community College, however, was not a gun free zone. A 2011 state court decision prohibited public colleges from banning guns on campus. The decision stemmed from a suit filed by the Oregon Firearm Education Foundation, a gun rights group. There was an effort to pass a new law to reinstate the ability of public colleges to ban guns. That measure was defeated by gun rights advocates.
That didn't stop the wingers from hammering on the lie all day long, even after reporter David Jacques told CNN he was carrying a gun on campus that day but didn't use it.
For those @NRA gun loons talking about gun free zones...UCC was not a gun free zone.
#UCCShooting pic.twitter.com/kuCdnKoI3h
— Bimm #StandwithPP (@bimmerella) October 1, 2015
