Opinion: Guns should be off-limits on campus – More guns on campus will only mean more bullets, more violent incidents

By Jeff Sheppard, The Herald of Arkansas State University

Because of the shooting tragedies on the campuses of Northern Illinois and Virginia Tech Universities, there has been a lot of discussion recently about allowing people with a concealed handgun license to carry concealed firearms on college campuses. In fact there is an organization, Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, which is comprised of more than 25,000 students, faculty, parents of students and other concerned citizens, and this organization believes more guns should be allowed on our college campuses.

It seems to me that this would multiply the problem of recent school shootings not reduce it. If this organization would like to see these problems reduced, I believe that they should take their donations and help the schools across the nation pay for more trained campus police, and not leave a deadly situation in the hands of licensed, but not properly trained students and faculty.

What does this organization want? The SCCC “wants to see “colleges” removed from the lists of places listed as “off limits” by the concealed carry laws in many states.” They would like all states concealment laws to resemble Utah’s, where state (tax subsidized) colleges cannot ban concealment of firearms on campus.

The SCCC says that these laws need to be changed on the state level so that institutions cannot choose their own school’s regulations.

Currently, many schools are concerned about the liability that they would incur if they allowed concealment of firearms, but with state laws changed this issue of liability would not be a concern. The Students for Concealed Carry on Campus has issues that they support, but they are still debating some very easy issues.

For instance, they have no official position of concealed carry by unlicensed people. So they are still debating whether or not it should be alright to allow those who have not even had the slightest handgun training to carry a gun around our campuses.

In addition, this organization is still undecided about the concealed carry of firearms on the campuses of our primary and secondary schools. Again this is where schools and states should focus on getting more properly trained professionals into classrooms and schools.

I would have to check the numbers to see the amount employed, but when I go to the mall it seems as though there is a greater police presence there, than on the ASU-Jonesboro campus.

Ideally, concealed carry of firearms seems like a good idea. An individual comes into a classroom to terrorize and destroy life, but is met with immediate resistance.

However, putting more guns on our campuses can only increase the amount of violent incidents. By allowing students and faculty that are not trained safety professionals to carry guns on college campuses, lawmakers are only asking for shootouts in our classrooms. They are also asking for more injuries to innocent students and faculty because there will be more bullets fired in all directions.

Violence will occur if someone chooses to take another’s life, regardless of the amount or extent of preparations by schools.

However, by allowing students and faculty who are untrained in proper procedures concerning violent incidents to carry handguns and police their own classrooms, the amount of injuries can only increase.