Do guns on campus make us safer?

By Julianna Backer, The Pine Log

When I first heard about the idea of allowing concealed carry on campus, my immediate reaction was shock and horror. For those of you who may not know, concealed carry is the ability to carry a gun concealed on one’s person. The idea of SFA suddenly becoming a campus full of gun-toting students is a little discomforting.

But every story has two sides. After all, if one of the students in the Virginia Tech massacre had been carrying a gun, perhaps the massacre would have been prevented. Or perhaps not. The simple fact of the matter is that someone carrying a gun may be too paralyzed to use it.

But the people who are going to commit acts like the Virginia Tech massacre don’t worry about permits and laws. When you’ve made up your mind to kill as many people as possible, it stops mattering whether the gun you’re carrying is legal or not.

A tragedy like Virginia Tech could happen anywhere, but is that risk high enough to allow students to carry guns on campus, thereby risking more accidents? There is a long and involved background check for anyone who wants to get a gun, one that might hopefully eliminate things like mental instability or previous criminal history.

But background checks can’t eliminate certain things. They can’t eliminate the effects of someone drinking heavily and losing some of their inhibitions. They can’t eliminate anger over things like infidelity.

SFA is, relatively, a safe campus. According to the Campus Crime Statistics, no SFA students have been murdered here in five years. Violence is rare here. Does it discourage or encourage students to tell them that they can bring guns on campus? By allowing them that freedom, are we making them feel more safe or less safe? Would it reduce or increase our crime statistics? These are questions almost wholly without answers, and unless such a program is enacted, we’ll probably never know. But the simple question is, is there a pressing need?

There is already a national group called Students For Concealed Carry On Campus that is trying to promote the issue to legislators and Congress. From an interview with Newsweek:

“There are currently 11 U.S. universities that have for a combined total of 60 semesters allowed concealed carry on campus without an incident. You haven’t seen an incident of gun violence, an incident of gun theft, no gun accidents,” said W. Scott Lewis, a board member for the group.

What it comes down to is that we simply don’t have the resources to stop kids bringing guns on campus. After all, there are no metal detectors at SFA. There are no random searches. Students are allowed to come and go freely every day. It is currently not allowed at SFA, and there is no expectation that this will change any time soon. Still, the question has been raised and the issue should be given due consideration by every SFA student. Is there a compelling reason to allow guns on campus? Would it make us all safer or more at risk?