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Dave Larsen writes about higher education.Home > Blogs > On Campus > Archives > 2008 > April > 15
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Gun-toting students want to bring weapons on campus
(April 16, 2007: In front of Norris Hall at Virginia Tech, after shootings resulted in multiple fatalities. AP photo.)
Gun-toting students legally permitted to conceal their weapons should be allowed to bring their guns on campuses in order to protect themselves against shooting rampages, assaults, rapes and armed robberies.
That’s one idea, anyway. And it’s being pushed by a lot of college students. And some Ohio lawmakers.
As the nation looks back to one year ago Wednesday, when 32 students, faculty and a lone gunman died in the horrific massacre at Virginia Tech, everyone is asking: How do we prevent this?
While colleges across the country have increased security focused on preventing and responding to future shootings, a movement fighting for the right to carry concealed weapons on campus is gaining momentum.
I wrote a story in the Dayton Daily News about a national student advocacy group called Students for Concealed Carry on Campus making its case to lawmakers that gun owners with concealed-carry licenses should be able to protect themselves while on a college campus.
The group of college students, faculty, staff and parents formed in Texas the day after the Virginia Tech shooting, and quickly took root in Ohio. Three of its nine national leaders are from Southwest Ohio campuses: Miami University, University of Cincinnati and College of Mount St. Joseph.
The group has swelled to nearly 26,000 members with 300 chapter in 43 states in recent months, doubling in size since February when 15 people were shot and five killed at Northern Illinois University. Ohio’s 22 chapters outnumbers all states, including Texas and Utah.
But campus police say more guns on campus is not the answer. The idea is a little disturbing to advocates of gun control here and around the country because it’s gaining popularity and has re-ignited debates over restrictions on carrying firearms. The Brady Center Against Gun Violence calls the movement “No Gun Left Behind” and wrote a report bearing that name last May.
Both sides of this issue seem to make good cases for their point of view. Read about them below.
Meanwhile, read the second story in the Dayton Daily News about a few proposed Ohio bills that seek to loosen the conceal-carry restrictions for campuses and other state-owned properties.
Stephen Feltoon, the Midwest regional director for Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, says that allowing concealed-carry permit holders to bring their firearms on campus is not about playing hero or vigilante or replacing police officers.
“This is about self defense,” said the 2007 Miami University-Oxford graduate. Students for Concealed Carry plans a protest for next week, during which students will wear empty holsters to classes. About 3,000 people have pledged to participate, Feltoon said.
Campus police can’t respond to a shooting fast enough to protect a student, but a licensed gun owner could defend himself in such a situation, Feltoon said.
But the idea has plenty of critics.
“I believe that we are more likely to have more problems with having guns on campus than in having an active shooter,” said Miami University Police Chief John McCandless, a 28-year police veteran from Michigan who has been at Miami for four years. “We should be focusing on prevention.”
The critics of such laws cite a number of potential problems, including making it hard for the police to figure out who’s the bad guy in a situation where armed citizens are also presenting guns.
McCandless also echoes a worry held by campus police departments around the country: That people at 21 years old (the legal age required for concealed-carry permits in Ohio) are barely out of adolescence, and could respond dangerously to typical campus frustrations like poor grades or disagreements with a boyfriend or girlfriend. Students these days certainly have their fair share of stress and turmoil.
“I don’t want to paint the picture that CCW holders are irresponsible or minimize the pain that families went through, but I don’t prescribe to the notion that if we had more armed people on campuses they would be safer,” McCandless said.
That’s an argument that the students, who are trained to handle their guns, say is “bull,” said Michael Flitcraft, a University of Cincinnati sophomore and one of the group’s national leaders. CCW permit holders don’t cause incidences off-campus, so why should a college be any different, he argues.
Anyone who legally conceals-carries a weapon is able to defend himself in a movie theater, bank, shopping mall or the street, “responding to the one trying to take your life with equal or greater force,” Flitcraft said. “These CCW licenses… are only for dealing with serious bodily injury and death.”
“You have to think about it from a college students standpoint,” he said. “These people (in the school shootings) have been corralled into a room and executed one at a time. I have one legal option: Throw my physics book at him? My laptop?”
By the way, there’s a hole in the donut here: What you may not know is that it’s perfectly legal to carry your gun openly, on your waist in a holster for example, without a license. If you have a gun, you can do that. But, do it on a college campus and you’ll probably get arrested for inciting a panic.
On a lighter note: Check out this take on what the founding fathers might have had in mind with the Right to Bear Arms by my favorite television cartoon, Family Guy.
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