Armed to The Teeth: University of Idaho Students Packing Heat Following Murder of Four Classmates
Terrified University of Idaho students returned to school this week armed to the teeth as bumbling investigators continue their manhunt for the butcher who slaughtered four classmates, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Guns, knives, pepper spray, and kick-ass self-defense classes are the new norm for the roughly 8,000 students returning to the rural 810-acre campus after their Thanksgiving break.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, and their friend Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20 — were each stabbed to death inside the home at about 3 AM on November 13 with a Rambo-style combat knife.
So far, the Moscow Police Department with the assistance of the FBI and Idaho State Troopers does not have a suspect in custody creating a paranoid chill effect on the college town of about 26,000 people.
Returning students like freshman David Scott, who lives in an apartment off campus, aren’t taking any chances and are looking into self-defense classes and possibly some metal hardware for protection.
“I’ve always wanted to get a handgun,” Scott told the Idaho Statesman. “But I haven’t really had a reason to get one until now. The main thing I’ve been hearing from people is to keep a firearm or something else for self-defense.”
University students are allowed to pack heat on campus with proper licensing and pre-approval from the school administrators — but it’s normally frowned upon, the Statesman noted.
Last week, the behemoth Walmart ran out of pepper spray and one sorority started a fundraiser to supply its members with personal safety alarms that emit an ear-splitting shrill when activated.
Renowned relationship expert Dr. Gilda Carle told RadarOnline.com the petrified students and their parents have lost their confidence in law enforcement.
“The parents and students are frustrated,” she said. “Law enforcement have failed them, and the children must go to school. So is a parent to do?”
“They are terrified, so they figure take a gun or a knife with you, but they have to make sure that their child is trained to use the weapon that they are carrying so that they don’t fall prey to their own weapon.”
More importantly, Dr. Gilda explained the murders thrust the students into the real world of life and death — exposing their vulnerabilities and fears.
“They are afraid to go to places that they ordinarily go to and when your college age, at that particular age in life, they feel like they are invincible,” she noted. “And suddenly that innocence has been stolen from them…Their trust has been stolen. How can they trust, who can they trust?”
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