By Ken Hanson

Another school year has started. Kids settle back into a structured routine, bus drivers renew early morning coffee friendships, young athletes take to sports fields and millions of parents once again rely on security arrangements that amount to rubbing a rabbit’s foot. It was an especially surreal experience for me, as I walked into the brand new school building on dedication day, past dozens of brand new “no guns” stickers, and noted that both my kids’ classrooms were right next to exit doors. Sadly, my first thought was to remember to tell my kids that if they hear gunfire, they are to run for the exit door rather than let the teacher lock them down as ready-made hostages.

Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, schools are nothing but soft targets to the sickos of the world. Yet we continue to protect against this reality with nothing but happy thoughts (denial) and wishful “precautions.” Virginia Tech, Columbine, Paducah, Nickel Mines, Weston, Campbell County, Red Lake, Rocori, Appalachian School of Law, Case Western, Jonesboro, Thurston…it pains me to go on and I am not even half way through the roll call of shootings from the past decade. What do all of these have in common? Conclusive demonstrations that layer upon layer of laws, soft security measures and wishful thinking yield nothing but crime scenes.

There is, however, one approach that we have not tried, and that approach remains the 800 pound elephant in the room.

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10/22-10/27

On April 16, 2007, twenty-seven students and five faculty members at Virginia Tech lost their lives to a madman who possessed one distinct advantage over his victims—He was not concerned with following the rules. Undeterred by Virginia Tech's status as a "gun free zone," this mentally unstable individual carried two handguns onto the university campus and indiscriminately opened fire.

During the week of October 22-27, 2007, college students throughout America will attend classes wearing empty holsters, in protest of state laws and campus policies that stack the odds in favor of armed killers by disarming law abiding citizens who are licensed to carry concealed handguns virtually everywhere else.