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Speak Out
Should students and faculty be allowed to carry guns on college campuses?
By James Horner, Student
The average college backpack probably contains notebooks, texts and a laptop. What if it were legal for it to also hold a gun? Since the shooting deaths of 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus in 2007 by a troubled student, state legislatures nationwide have considered bills to allow carrying concealed weapons on college campuses, including into classrooms and dormitories. So far legislation has failed to pass on 55 occasions in 29 states, but bills are still pending in 10 states. Lawmakers in several states where legislation has failed plan to reintroduce it.
No federal law permits or prohibits guns on campus. Twenty-six states ban the practice, with an exception for public safety officers, and 23 states leave the decision to the colleges, most of which choose to be “gun free.” Only Utah requires public universities to allow guns on campus.
Gun-rights advocates believe that students and faculty should be accorded the same prerogative to carry guns on campus as they would have to carry them legally in other places. In their view, allowing guns at universities is an extension of the preservation of the constitutional right to bear arms. “I see it as a right of the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” said state Rep. Ernest Wooton of Louisiana, where a guns-on-campus bill recently stalled. Proponents contend that blanket prohibitions of guns on campus make students and professors more vulnerable; they believe that responsible armed faculty and students can make campuses safer and prevent mass shootings like the one at Virginia Tech.
Colin Goddard, a survivor of the Virginia Tech killings, disagrees. “If students had been armed to the teeth the day I was shot, it’s very likely more students and others would have been injured or killed in the crossfire,” Goddard said in a statement for the Brady Campaign, the country’s largest gun-control organization. One potential problem opponents point out is that police would have a difficult time discerning in a critical moment which person with a gun is the aggressor.
Gun-control advocates emphasize that mass campus shootings are rare events, but a person who is determined to commit such a violent act, they argue, would not be deterred by the knowledge that others may have guns.
Supporters of gun control also warn of the dangers of introducing guns into an atmosphere where more than half of students nationwide are reported to engage in risky behaviors such as binge drinking and drug use, which can impair judgment. Compounding the problem, they note, is that the part of the brain that controls judgment is not fully developed yet in young adults. In addition, it is argued that suicide attempts, high among college students, are likely to lead to more deaths because of access to guns. The Brady Campaign reports that a gun used in a suicide attempt ends in death more than 90 percent of the time, compared to a 3 percent fatality rate from an attempted drug overdose.
Leaders of universities across the country have come out in opposition to allowing guns on campus. Darby Dickerson, dean of the Stetson University College of Law, who recently authored a paper on the subject, told Inside Higher Ed that “when you allow more guns on campus, the injuries and deaths you’re going to see primarily are going to be from negligent and reckless conduct.” College administrators also worry that professors might shy away from controversial topics in class and prevent students from fully engaging in debate lest an argument becomes so heated that it causes a student to act rashly and pull out a gun.
What do you think?
Should guns be allowed on campus? Will they make campuses safer? Are college students responsible enough to carry weapons? Does prohibiting guns on campus violate a person’s Second Amendment rights? Join the discussion!
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