In almost all mass shooting situations, particularly at schools, the common theme is a gun-free zone, with the shooter being the only one armed person in the building for minutes or longer. And in each case, the shooter couldn’t care less about the gun-free nature of the building, and if anything, was drawn to such a location.

Gun-free zones presume the good intentions of those entering the zone. And the overwhelming majority have such good intentions. But for those who have bad intentions, gun-free zones turn schools and other locations into shooting galleries. The good people are unarmed, the evil person is armed.

And that looks like what happened at Umpqua Community College. The shooter had several critical minutes when he, and he alone, ruled over those who obeyed the gun-free zone rules. The one or two campus securities guards, themselves unarmed, were minutes away when seconds counted. Police moved quickly, but not fast enough.

Gun-free zones achieve the opposite of what is intended. Rather than making good people safer, it puts them at the mercy of the evil people.