EDITORIAL: Conceal carry should be extended to universities

GreenStormCloud

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Thu Mar-17-11 03:16 PM
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EDITORIAL: Conceal carry should be extended to universities

http://www.macon.com/2011/03/17/1490241/conceal-carry-should-be-extended.html

By STEFAN B. TAHMASSEBI - Special to The Telegraph

Hysterical claims are being made by the opponents of a recent bill introduced to allow concealed weapon permit holders to carry on state college campuses. Unfortunately, sometimes tragic crimes occur on campuses. Sometimes they even involve firearms. But it should be noted that all of these campus shootings have involved schools where the gun prohibitionists have had their way. Such shootings occurred in so called “gun-free” schools -- schools that have prohibited firearms on campus, even by students and professors that had gone through all the background checks and training requirements to obtain a concealed weapons permit. Unfortunately, the police were not able to timely intervene. A University of Alabama shooting took place literally next door to the campus police station.

You have to ask whether the outcomes might have been different if any of the students, faculty or staff had been allowed to defend themselves. There is an answer to this question. A few years ago an unstable student at the Appalachian Law School attacked students and staff with a firearm. As was widely reported in the press, he was stopped by other students. However, many of the news organizations failed to report that he was stopped by other students who had firearms. Unfortunately, the school had a “no guns on campus” policy, and so the good guys had to leave the school when the shooting began, run to their cars off school grounds to get their guns, and then run back inside to confront and stop the shooter. Unfortunately, during that time period, the shooter had shot six students and faculty, three died. Refusing to allow guns on campus makes those who might otherwise be able to defend themselves easy prey for criminals.

Universities that have allowed the right to carry to extend to their campuses have experienced a decrease in on-campus crime. Every public university in Utah has allowed concealed handguns on campus since 2006, and there have been no reported misfires, accidental shootings, gun crimes or any other gun-related incidents reported. Blue Ridge Community College in Virginia has also allowed concealed carrying on campus for several years with zero incidents.

The argument that students and professors are too irresponsible to be trusted with firearms fails when one considers the actual requirements for carrying a concealed weapon anywhere, including a college campus. Any student or professor wishing to carry a firearm would have to comply with their state’s permit requirements. While these vary from state to state, they include criminal background checks, are limited to adults, have education and training requirements, and are designed to prevent anyone with a history of criminal behavior or mental problems from carrying a firearm.

As studies have shown, and despite the hysterical claims of the gun prohibitionists, concealed carry holders continue to be law abiding citizens even after they obtain the concealed carry permit. In order to rationalize the prohibition on concealed carrying on campus, you must believe that the otherwise law abiding permit holder, by merely stepping onto a campus, transforms from a responsible law abiding adult into a reckless criminal. There are no studies that support this irrational hysteria.