Guns on Campus
When someone has a license to carry a concealed firearm, it does not mean that they should be able to carry wherever they would like. No one person is responsible enough for that privilege. In a high stress situation of an active shooter scene, even a highly trained person can make a bad assessment of the situation. Someone that just bought their first firearm or just got their license to carry, can make the situation worse. Firearms should not be allowed on any school campus because they are dangerous, can lead to more gun violence, and more innocent deaths due to inexperience.
Let us start with just general safety. When someone gets around their friends they will want to let them see their new firearm. Then it gets passed
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to someone else that does not know safe handling habits. Some people are not safety minded when it comes to firearms. They do not think about if the gun is loaded or unloaded, if their finger is on the trigger, and where they are pointing the barrel of the gun at. Then bang firearm is discharged and someone gets shot. Now the situation goes from a learning experience to possible life or death situation. Young adults just out of high school these days are not responsible enough to carry a firearm.
It would be too easy for a girlfriend mad her boyfriend or vice versa, to just pull out their gun and shoot without thinking about what is happening. Or if they get a bad grade on a test or quiz and feel that a professor deserves it for being unfair, enter the classroom and shoot the teacher and other students. According to the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, Inc. (IACLEA) “There is no credible statistical evidence demonstrating that laws allowing the carrying of concealed firearms reduce crime. In fact, the evidence suggests that permissive concealed carry laws generally will increase crime....”.
Police and military personnel train for months and run countless mock drills to learn how to diffuse situations. They still do not know just how they would react in a real life active shooter situation. There are too many factors that can go wrong in that kind of situation. There might be other students that decide to react and just shoot the first person they see with a gun. Now you have several trigger happy people running around with guns for law enforcement to distinguish if they are a threat or ally. Any of these can result in more unnecessary injuries or
deaths. Students already have enough on their minds between studying and grades to not need to worry about who does and does not have a firearm. They do not need to worry about is who is carrying a firearm and if that person has had any kind of training or just knows how to load a magazine and pull the trigger. Let us leave that to the professionals. All schools have their own law enforcement in place that has been trained to handle situations that arise. Adding faculty and students with firearms just makes their jobs that much harder.
Timothy Wheeler, talks about how guns can save lives in his essay “There’s A Reason They Choose Schools”. Wheeler writes that shooters choose schools because of the rules that are placed on campuses. Wheeler’s writes, “[t]he only solution is a prepared and brave defender with the proper lifesaving tool- and gun” (Wheeler, 657). But if everyone has a gun and a shooter comes into a college campus everyone will have a gun out. This means that when the police show up they will not know
If there is a shooter inside the school campus then students will take out their guns too and start shooting at the target. Then when the campus police go to the scene they will not know who the real target is. Cops are trained to take out whoever may be a danger to someone else or to them. If they don’t know who the real target is then there will be many mistaken shots by the cops. According to “Why Our Campuses Are Safer Without Concealed Handguns”, “The campus police said that the probability would have been high that anyone emerging from a classroom at Norris Hall holding a gun would have been shot”
Why would a student feel the need to carry a concealed weapon on campus? After all they’re headed to a “school” not a war zone. Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Mississippi, Oregon, Texas, and Wisconsin are the only states that allow concealed weapons on campus. Arizona and other states let schools decide the policy on weapons. Many states prohibited concealed weapons on campus which is the right choice. Most colleges who allow their students to carry concealed weapons increase the chances of violence on campus. College students must be unable to carry concealed weapons on
Secondly, some people believe guns should not be allowed on campus because they may go off by accident. True, a gun may go off by accident, but according to, Students for Concealed Carry, out of 150 college campuses that allow concealed carry, there have been only three accidental discharges (Common). Two of them were by staff and one by a student. All three of the accidental discharges resulted in non-life-threatening discharges in which no one was injured (Common). All three incidents could have been prevented through proper training and practice, such as wearing a
Concealed weapons in college campus’s have been a big issue since the mass shootings in Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois Universities. Allowing for guns to be allowed in college campus’s would be a bad thing to do since it would create additional risks for students, even if weapons were allowed it wouldn’t deter the shooter, and it would detract from a healthy learning environment. So far there is only five states , Colorado, Mississippi, Oregon, Utah, and Wisconsin, that allow “concealed carry” at school campus.
Guns should be banned from all college campuses nationwide. Many students, teachers, and college presidents strongly oppose hidden, loaded guns on campuses because it will lead to increased violence, accidental shootings, and the non-carrying public would feel unsafe around the carrying public. If all elementary to high schools have a strict ban on guns for their campuses, it seems logical to extend the ban up to higher education. Now that it is more common for students in high school to take dual classes on a college campus, extending would ensure safety of the minors. Guns have a purpose at other arenas, but on a campus that is intended for learning and education it would be best to keep
School shootings have altered American history greatly over the past two decades. From 1997 to 2007, there have been more than 40 school shootings, resulting in over 70 deaths and many more injuries. School shoot-outs have been increasing in number dramatically in the past 20 years. There are no boundaries as to how old the child would be, or how many people they may kill or injure. At Mount Morris Township, Michigan, on February 29th, 2000, there was a 6 year old boy who shot and killed another 6 year old girl at the Buell Elementary School with a .32 caliber pistol. And although many shootings have occurred at High Schools or Middle Schools, having more guns on those campuses would not be a good environment for children to grow up in. However, on a college campus, the pupils attending are not children anymore; the age range is from 17 to mid 20’s. Therefore they understand the consequences associated to the use of weapons and have gained more maturity. In April 16th, 2007, at Blacksburg, Virginia, there was a shooting rampage enacted by Sung-Hui Cho (23 years, from Centreville, VA) who fired over 170 rounds, killing 32 victims, before taking his own life at the Virginia Tech campus. Colleges and Universities would be a much safer place, for student and teacher, if guns were permitted on campus for self-defense purposes.
Although most security measures passively make schools safer, it is not nearly enough to prevent an individual who intends on creating mass violence from completing his or her task. State representatives, national organizations, school staff, and parents need to come together to figure out the most reliable ways to prevent an active shooter situation from occurring in their schools. One solution that has been active is many schools have partnered with local law enforcement agencies to provide a police officers to patrol school grounds....
Written on December 15, 1791 was the second amendment of the constitution. It states that "A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."(Cite)? United States citizens have used guns for various reasons that include protection, hunting, and sporting reasons. The topic on gun control is a very complex topic that is discussed daily. It is such a big issue that it has both the democrats and republicans firmly established in their positions. One of the main reasons this has been such an important topic in recent years is because of all the murders and massacres that have happened recently in the United States. As our newly nominated president, Donald
More times than not teachers are not properly educated, prepared, or skilled enough to arm the gun and shoot it during high stress crisis. A school teacher, Mrs. Robinson commented, “I’m not sure I could even get to a gun in a drawer or closet to use it. I think my gut instinct would be getting my kids secured first” (CNNMoney). An untrained or barely trained faculty member with a firearm is more of a liability than an asset. The weapon could easily fall out of the hands of a briefly trained teacher and into the hands of the perpetrator. Even annual training is not enough training for a teacher to be skilled enough to handle a firearm. Therefore, it is negligent to supply teachers with minimal training the right to carry a firearm on school
Due to the recent disruption of violent crimes on campus, many citizens that are pro-gun activist have suggested that both the students and teachers should be allowed to carry concealed weapons on school campuses. Those who are with guns allowed on school campuses claim that their rights have been violated for the reason that many college campuses refuse to allow weapons of any kind on their property. The Constitution of The United States of America already grants citizens the right to carry guns with them. It is not appropriate for guns to be in a vulnerable area such as a college campus or any University. There are already too many guns available to the public or easy to get any kind of gun, and allowing them on
“Numerous studies have estimated that there are anywhere from 800,000 to 2.5 million defensive gun uses every year in the United States. According to a widely cited study by Gary Kleck, a criminology professor at Florida State University, there are 2.2 million to 2.5 million defensive gun uses annually. A sample of those cases revealed that 8.2 percent were defenses against attempted rape and sexual assault, and 30.4 percent were defenses against other types of assault” (Expanded On-Campus Gun Rights). When establishing the gun-free zones that are currently in place at many campuses around the United States, only ensures occupants of these zones are essentially helpless against an aggressor who is willing to break the law. In allowing a controlled, concealed handgun in this area, students would able to protect themselves from someone who intended to cause harm upon them with a firearm, thus causing the perpetrator to reassess his current
Just as any other subject, guns being allowed on school campuses has cons and pros. Some pro-arguments are that guns can prevent a slaughter and safe many people’s lives in case someone try to use his/her gun against others. For example, if a person who is in a classroom, knows how to use a gun and also has access to one, if a criminal starts a shooting you can use your gun and shoot against the criminal and safe your life and the others’ lives. This is a great argument to allow arms on schools or public places because it would prevent people’s
“I don’t think it’s about More gun control. I grew up in the south with guns everywhere and we never shot anyone. This shooting is about people who are taught the value of life.” By Samuel L. Jackson. The United States are the most armed nation with already 88.8 million guns for every hundred people. Guns on campus will lower the problem of sexual assualt. Guns on campus will help the problem of sexual assault. School shootings have been happening since 1997 to now College kids should have a weapon on campus because campus police can’t be everywhere, gives the parents a peace of mind and also keeps students safe. Campus police can’t always be there when there is a problem on campus. They could be handling something else they could also be very
According to a February 2008 article, “Woman kills 2 students in Louisiana College classroom, takes own life,” published by Fox News, A 23 year old woman at the Louisiana Technical College, open fired with a .357 revolver killing two fellow students, and Taking officers approximately four minutes to respond to the first 911 call(n.p.). If this college had an open gun carry law in placed this shooting could have been prevented because this woman could