The Columbine High School shooting took 15 lives. Virginia Tech's holocaust took another 33. And at Sandy Hook, the toll was 27 lives.

Together, those three claimed the lives of 75, and the impacts rippled across the nation to affect thousands more.

All three took place on "no-gun" school campuses, and critics point out that just a single armed adult at the right place and time could have stopped any of those rampages.

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That specific sentiment – that guns should be allowed on campuses – has gotten a strong boost in just the last day or so with an endorsement of the idea from a Hollywood star and formal adoption of such provisions by lawmakers in Texas.

WND's reporting on the controversy dates back nearly to its founding, when in 1999 there was a report on an offer from Front Sight Firearms Training Institute then to provide free intense firearms training for any school administrator, teacher or staff member in the U.S. who wanted to be armed for the safety of the children and community.

"It seems obvious that armed and trained staff members inside the school are in a better position to identify the attackers and do something immediately to resolve the situation," a spokesman advised at that time. "It is much harder for police, who arrive on the scene too late to stop the killing, to then figure out where the attackers are and what they are doing."

Dana Loesch has a message on this issue, in "Hands Off My Gun."

Politico reported one surge of support for the idea of guns being legally allowed on campus came recently from Hollywood actor Vince Vaughn.

In an interview with the British version of GQ Magazine, Vaughn said, "Banning guns is like banning forks in an attempt to stop making people fat. Taking away guns, taking away drugs, the booze, it won't rid the world of criminality."

The star of the second season of "True Detective," continued, "I support people having a gun in public full stop, not just in your home. We don't have the right to bear arms because of burglars; we have the right to bear arms to resist the supreme power of a corrupt and abusive government. It's not about duck hunting; it's about the ability of the individual. It's the same reason we have freedom of speech. It's well known that the greatest defense against an intruder is the sound of a gun hammer being pulled back."

At virtually the same time, the Guardian reported lawmakers in the state of Texas approved a plan to let license holders carry concealed firearms on most college and university campuses.

The regulation will allow concealed-carry permit holders, or CHL licensees, in the state to carry loaded firearms on university and college campuses. Schools may create gun-free zones, but the Guardian said, "establishing such provisions is complex at best."

"We find it disheartening that many in the legislature continue to turn a deaf ear to the wishes of higher education officials, faculty, students, parents and campus law enforcement, who together made it crystal clear that they didn't want guns on college campuses," said Andy Pelosi of the Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus.

The report said the American Association of State Colleges and Universities lists at least 370 colleges across American where officials have signed onto the effort.

WND reported earlier this year that police took two people into custody after the Propel School in the Pittsburgh area was put on lockdown because of reports students had guns on campus.

And WND reported in 2013 that a university safety expert said people who find themselves in danger in situations at or near the University of Arkansas in Little Rock should defend themselves by glancing and nodding.

That was when the Arkansas legislature adopted a concealed-carry law for campuses but let administrators opt out and ban guns. Most did immediately.

Georgia's House earlier decided to allow guns on campuses, and Liberty University in Virginia did the same. So did Florida.

In 2008, WND reported that Arizona lawmakers endorsed a plan to let adults carry firearms on state campuses.

The argument at the time was simple, and outlined by Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America.

"The police got to both the Virginia Tech murder scene and the New Life Church [in Colorado] in about six minutes," he noted. "At Virginia Tech, 30 people died. At New Life, two died in the parking lot and once the bad guy got inside the building he was engaged by (armed) security team volunteers and nobody else died. In fact, he was finished in about 30 seconds."

He said that should illustrate the benefits of having someone armed on campuses.

Pratt cited the April 2007 Virginia Tech case, in which shooter Cho Seung-Hui, 23, fatally shot 32 people in a dorm and a classroom before killing himself, as well as the New Life Church shooting in Colorado Springs, Colo., in December of that year. Although the church operation is not identical to an educational campus, its sprawling acres and buildings and thousands of people have similarities. Police arrived on both scenes within minutes, but the death tolls were 32 in Virginia, two in Colorado.

That was because a security officer at the church engaged the shooter and shot him almost as soon as he entered the building.

"What greater contrast can there be?" Pratt suggested.