Benefits Of Open Carry On Campus

Of all school shootings only 47 percent of them are on college campuses. The other 53 percent are in elementary through high school grade campuses. These numbers can be drastically cut back by allowing concealed and open carry on college campuses. Students should be allowed to open carry on campus because it increases the protection of both themselves and the public.

Did you know that open carry has been allowed in all 50 states since 2013? However only a small number of college campuses allow for open carry on their school campus. There are numerous reasons that open carry should be allowed on campus. Some of which are: in case of an active shooter there will be less death,there is increased safety among the public, and there is a decrease

One of the common arguments is that there is a higher suicide risk. People think that students would shoot themselves on campus because they had easier access to a gun. Another reason people state that concealed carry on campus is a bad idea is because they think that it would be a distraction to the other students. Anti-gun citizens have the idea that if a student or staff member has a gun on their hip the students will be unable to focus and thus won’t be able to be successful in their studies. “Public safety should be left to professionally qualified police officers, not private citizens with little or no expert training” (Procon). People think that police are more capable of protecting the people because they have to go through the academy and have extensive training. “A Taser is as effective as a handgun against an armed assailant” (Common Arguments). Another explanation people have is that if someone is firing a firearm the best solution is not firing back. They think that the more bullets that are fired the more chance of innocent people being injured. Would police be able to identify an active shooter from an armed and helping citizen? These people that worry this is because they are afraid that the police would shoot and hurt an innocent

This means that students having guns on campus won’t make any impact on the number of suicides in college students. Guns would not be a distraction in class because concealed carry means that it would be out of sight out of mind resulting in no one even knowing that it is there. If we waited to rely on police officers so many more people would have died. There can only be so many police officers. Citizens have to take a training class to receive their concealed handgun license. A background check is ran and they are just as capable of protecting the public as a police officer or other trained individual. The argument about a Taser is bad advice because a Taser has to be used in close quarters and in most cases a person would be shot before being close enough to the gun shooter to tase them. “The answer to bullets flying is almost always more bullets flying. That’s why the police bring so many guns with them when they respond to a report of ‘shots fired’” (Common Arguments). How else do we expect police to respond? If police didn’t carry guns and respond with gunfire to take out active shooters then they would run the risk of being shot and dying. It is insane to believe that answering shooting with anything less than guns is reasonable. There has never been a case that police have encountered a situations that they have had to try to figure out