A college education is very important. It helps students become more open-minded about certain topics, gives them a chance to reinvent themselves as well as prepare them for their future occupation. Students are already stressed from the college environment, so one of the last things they should be worried about is their safety. With the increase in campus shootings, more people have been divided on the safety measures that should be implemented to keep the students safe. One of such controversial topics is concealed carry on campus. If they can, and want to, everyone should be able to carry a firearm on their person wherever they go on campus, especially if they are a college resident.
Alan Schwarz, author of The New York Times article “A Bid for Guns on Campuses to Deter Rape” wrote, “twelve states already allow campus carry: Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Michigan, Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut and Virginia” (Schwarz NP). College students in those states already have the right to protect themselves with their own firearms. As of now, at least ten more states are considering passing similar laws. There are many compelling reasons for concealed carry. Concealed handguns protect people who cannot always rely on police forces for protection. Concealed handguns deter crime and could help stop a public shooting spree. Most adults who carry concealed handguns are law-abiding and do not misuse their firearms. The majority of Americans support allowing the concealed carry of handguns.
While safety is one of the universities’ goals, their campus security may not always be a reliable solution in the heat of the moment, when a crime is being committed. Many university campuses have police officers, but not enough to help everyone. Arrigo and Acheson, authors of “Concealed Carry Bans and the American College Campus: A Law, Social Sciences, and Policy Perspective.” claim that, “sworn campus officers and security personnel simply cannot be expected to be on hand for every act of violence or criminality that occurs. In these instances, individuals are left to defend themselves” (Arrigo & Acheson 121). Richard W. Stevens, lawyer and author of “Just Dial 911? The Myth of Police Protection” mentions Arizona Sheriff Richard Mack who stated, “…police do very little to prevent violent crime. We investigate crime after the fact' (Stevens NP). While this is very important, it does nothing for the individuals who need protection at that moment. Linda Greenhouse in her New York Times article states that, “The Supreme Court has ruled more than once that police officers have no legal duty to protect citizens from violent crime” (Greenhouse NP). Basically, in many cases it is up to the individual to protect their life or well-being. An ability to have a gun at their disposal could prove very useful. Even if a would-be victim did contact the police, they would still wait for their arrival, which can take anywhere from ten to fifteen minutes, on average. time they may not have. An alternative solution would be to providing personal security, one could carry their own gun on campus.
Often arguments are made that rarely does a good guy with a gun stop a bad guy with a gun. According to David B. Kopel, author of Colorado Consensus on Gun Laws, the state of Colorado had enacted the 2003 Concealed Carry Act which “…helped to stop a massacre at the New Life megachurch in Dec. 2007 when a volunteer security guard for the church who was carrying a concealed handgun shot an attacker who had opened fire in the church” (Kopel NP). Clearly, this was one such situation. Good guys with guns do stop bad guys with guns. Perhaps if more good guys could carry guns, they could stop more bad guys. The law in Colorado has been passed as a consequence of 1999 Columbine school shooting. Similar situations happened at other school campuses, like Appalachian School of Law, for example, where armed students used their weapons to disarm an active shooter on campus and prevented a potential mass shooting.
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Responsible citizens should be allowed to arm themselves against criminals with guns. Violent criminals will always have guns, off and on campus. Rather than being victims, students who are concealed handgun carriers have a sense of safety and security, especially when going outside at night. A study by criminologist Gary Kleck, PhD, concluded that, 'robbery and assault victims who used a gun to resist were less likely to be attacked or to suffer an injury than those who used any other methods of self-protection' (Kleck 167), which supports the argument that the mere presence of a weapon is a deterrent to escalation of crime, or even the crime itself. A peer-reviewed study, also with Kleck’s participation, published in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology “…found that when someone draws a concealed gun in self-defense, the criminal retreats 55.5% of the time” (Kleck and Gertz NP). A gun in the hands of a would-be victim levels the playing field significantly.
Some people, however, do not think that it would be safe to allow guns on campus. “Those who oppose concealed carry practices argue that colleges and universities have an obligation to cultivate a learning climate absent suspicion, fear, and danger, and that by allowing more guns on campus the incidents of violence will escalate rather than diminish” (Arrigo & Acheson 121). In other words, more guns equal more violence which in turn equals less safe learning environment. What is not being considered in that argument, is that individuals that want to conceal carry are responsible individuals; they took and passed conceal carry classes and have experience using their weapons. They are more likely to prevent or stop violence than to cause it. William Sturdevant, an engineering statistician wrote, “In Texas the general public is 5.3 times more likely to be arrested for violent offenses and 14 times more likely to be arrested for non-violent offenses than concealed carry weapon permit holders” (Sturdevant NP). Patrik Jonsson reported in The Christian Science Monitor says that, 'the number of incidents in which concealed-gun carriers kill innocent people is a fraction of 1 percent of all gun-related homicides' (Jonsson NP). Clearly, this is an indication of responsibility that concealed-carry permit holders display.
If concealed carry on college campuses was allowed nationwide, many more responsible students could be carrying a firearm without being a danger to anyone. They would have the ability to responsibly protect themselves with a firearm. Moreover, they could also protect others should another school shooting occur by stopping the shooter. Mass shooters tend to target the most people with the least amount of security, counting on no one being armed. Aaron Stark in his TEDx talk titled “I Was Almost a School Shooter” said, “It wasn’t about the people, it was about the largest amount of damage in the shortest amount of time with the least amount of security” (Stark 4:08-13). The situation he describes could be stopped by students or even faculty or staff carrying concealed weapons and why most gun advocates are against gun free zones.
Generally speaking, Americans support allowing concealed carry of handguns. Based on the results of a poll done by Thomson Reuters, “75% of Americans support laws allowing law-abiding citizens to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon' (Ipsos NP). A similar poll taken by CBS News and New York Times concluded, “65% of Americans oppose a federal law requiring a nationwide ban on people other than law enforcement officers carrying concealed weapons' (CBS News NP). Clearly, the majority of Americans are in favor of allowing the concealed carry of handguns. It is plausible that it will extend also to campus carry as well.
College is a learning environment where everyone should feel safe. Even though that is the goal, that is not always the case. Unfortunately, bad things do happen to students on campuses across America. If there were more guns on campus, in the hands of responsible people who can protect themselves and others, more students would be safe. Students could protect themselves if the campus police weren’t around. Having a handgun could deter crime and help stop a mass shooting spree. The majority of those who carry concealed handguns are law-abiding and do not misuse their firearms. Most Americans already support allowing the concealed carry of handguns in public. The next logical step is to support campus carry. If they can, and want to, everyone should be able to carry a firearm on their person wherever they go on campus.
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