The common argument made by the National Rifle Association is that guns don’t kill people; people kill people. This is mostly true, with the notable exception of the scene in True Lies where Jamie Lee Curtis drops a machine gun and it kills a roomful of terrorists. I would argue, however, that guns make it significantly easier for people to kill other people, and the majority of people on Earth ought not be killed in the first place, with the notable exception of roomfuls of terrorists and certain Somali pirates. This is why I’m against allowing concealed carry on university campuses.
Currently, concealed weapon permit holders can take their guns with them everywhere except for government buildings, bars and college campuses. While most people agree that it’s a good idea to keep firearms away from edifices of government and booze, 11 colleges nationwide allow concealed carry on campus, most notably every public college in Utah. And lawmakers in the Texas House of Representatives are in the process of passing a bill that would make it illegal for public universities in the state to prohibit gun owners with concealed carry permits from bringing their weapons onto college campuses.
Advocates of concealed carry on campus allege that allowing students and faculty to bring firearms to school is in accordance with their Second Amendment rights. The Web site for Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, a nationwide grassroots organization that advocates exactly what you’d expect it to, makes mention of the fact that experts agree concealed carry permit holders are five times less likely to commit violent crimes. What appears to be the central tenet of the call for allowing concealed carry on college campuses is the necessity to allow college students and faculty to defend themselves in the event of a Virginia Tech-style shooting spree.
I live in Portland and listen to NPR, and my family owns a Prius and a Subaru (with a Volvo in our recent past) – perhaps it’s not surprising that I disagree with the notion that a campus full of armed students and staff is safer than an unarmed one. While I agree that people, not guns, kill people, I am also a firm believer in the familiar adage “Mo’ firearms, mo’ problems,” especially on a college campus.
I’ve never heard a lot of people arguing to allow concealed carry in bars. Just about everyone seems to agree that a drunk person with ready access to a loaded gun is a genuinely bad thing. The thing is, after about 7 p.m. on any night of the week, a college campus and the surrounding areas become home to dozens of tiny bars, in the form of frat parties and freshmen playing beer pong in their dorm rooms. Have you ever seen two drunk people get into an argument? Imagine if one of them had a gun. It doesn’t even have to be a concealed carry permit holder – it could be a concealed carry permit holder’s roommate who took his holding roommate’s gun. Let’s keep both alcohol and firearms prohibited on campus – the University enforces the former of those rules, and I’d argue campus is a better place because of it.
Of course, banning firearms on campus only ensures that law-abiding students and staff don’t carry, which, in the eyes of the SCCC, puts us at the mercy of potential campus shooters. On the organization’s Web site, an image on the front page asks visitors which campus a mass murderer would be more likely to target: one that doesn’t allow students to carry guns, or one where students are allowed to be armed.
However, in my experience, mass murderers don’t seem terribly preoccupied with self-preservation. That could be why most of them commit suicide. And sure, an armed student body could potentially put down a campus shooter. But if campus safety is such a concern, let Department of Public Safety have guns – not everyone else. I think there’s a greater likelihood that if a campus shooter attacked an armed student body, responding police would have to deal with dozens of armed, adrenaline-crazed people running around, and the resulting confusion wouldn’t do anybody any good.
Where’s the logic behind allowing hundreds of guns onto campus in order to protect against one? Mo’ firearms, mo’ problems.
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