Guns In Schools

A graduate student leaving an evening class walks along the poorly lit sidewalk to the parking lot—it is a long, cold walk in the pitch-black night, and the student grows wary as shadows begin lurking in the distance. Suddenly, someone jumps out in front of the student, immediately threatening her with force. Before the student can react, she is raped and robbed. This is a very scary scenario, and one that happens on the SCSU campus every year. It seems like every week we get an e-mail citing another attack on students somewhere on or near campus. However, all of these attacks could be prevented if we allow students to carry guns as a means of self-defense.

Imagine a world where school shootings did not exist. Parents could send their children to school without having to worry about them being shot. In 2013, thirty school shootings took place in the United States. The most devastating school shooting in U.S. history was the Bath School shooting. On May 18, 1927, Andrew Kehoe entered the Bath Elementary School killing thirty-eight people and injuring fifty-eight. Kehoe then returned to his truck, and committed suicide by using explosives. School teachers would have a better chance, in high risk situations if they carried guns.

Imagine being in the family’s shoes when hearing through media reports that their child was killed in a school shooting. If teachers had the option of being equipped with the handguns, then that child (and the rest in the classroom) would have survived. How many more times are we going to learn about a deranged gunman walking into a school loaded and ready to kill? How many more innocent children need to die before we wake up and give our teachers the prospect to fight back? The only resolution is to grant our teachers a fighting chance. No shooter is going to target a school that can protect itself and fight back. Every second counts in a school shooting. Calling 911 and anticipating for police to arrive isn’t good enough. Spartanburg County South Carolina Sheriff Chuck Wright says, “Our form of justice is not making it. Carry a concealed weapon. That’ll fix it” (Miller, Fox News). Then there was Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke Jr. who lately created a nationwide uproar for advising citizens to master how to manage firearms so they can protect themselves, because he says, “simply calling 911 and waiting is no longer your best option” (Handelman Fox 6 Wisconsin). What happens when the nearest police unit is 10

Concealed carry and college campuses are two major topics currently in the media, yet these two topics are rarely used in unison, until now. The topic of whether or not concealed carry should be allowed on college campuses is a now mainstream debate with multiple views and numerous differentiating opinions. Many of the general public question if campus police is capable enough to protect a university’s enormous student body? Another commonly discussed issue is if concealed handguns actually do deter crime, and if they are capable of aiding in stopping a mass shooting spree? Or if guns on campus, carried by fellow classmates would make students as a whole feel more cautious or on the opposing hand make students feel more secure with guns carried on campus? If guns are allowed on campus, how will this affect a growing student’s ideology? These questions and many more are highly spoken of in our social media based generation, the answers to these questions help to improve our knowledge on this debate of concealed carry on college campuses, which will lead us to form our own individual opinions on this debate topic based on the facts and evidence presented.

Throughout its history, the United States has had a fascination with guns. Americans have used guns in times of war, for protection, and for hunting. Americans also use guns when they are intent on killing people. When violence happens in school shootings, drive-by shootings, assassination of public officials, or in the workplace and shopping malls, Americans demand something be done. This demand fuels the debate between gun rights and gun control activists. It fuels the debate over the interpretation of the Second Amendment. It fuels the debate on allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons in gun-free zones. This makes us ask the question: Should guns be banned from college

Allowing teachers to carry guns will allow teachers to prevent school shootings on the grounds of preschool through college campuses. Everyone has their own opinion about teachers being able to carry guns including other teachers, parents, and government officials. Depending on what state the teacher is teaching in determines if they can carry their gun now, if they are in the process of being able to, or if their state is not passing a law to allow them to carry their gun while at school. Teachers would not stand out like police officers or security officers would while in the school which would allow for other teachers and all of the students to have normal days if schools did not have officers before. Research shows that allowing some teachers to carry guns in their school promotes school safety, protects the teachers and students, and promotes gun safety while still teaching their students.

Is arming teachers a productive solution against future school shootings? Teachers carrying guns in school is currently a controversial issue in America, especially after a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which killed seventeen people on February 14th, 2018. Many people firmly encourage the idea that teachers should be allowed to bring guns to school because teachers can protect students if a shooting happens on-campus. Nevertheless, a lot of people wrestle with the idea of armed educators. Specifically, a strong disagreement from many teachers is because teachers’ duty is to educate students, and teachers are not police officers. Another opposition from students is they believe that “arming teachers

Colleges should not be allowed to take away your personal protection unless they can provide a truly safe environment for students. Sadly, most campuses can’t guarantee that assaults won’t occur, so people must be allowed to arm themselves for protection. While some schools have security or law enforcement, rarely can they reach the scene of an assault fast enough to prevent it. If the victim or a bystander has a self-defense weapon, there is a much greater possibility of stopping the attack. Attackers also avoid areas that allow firearms, and knowingly target places that don’t allow them. On October 9th, the Crime Prevention Research Center released a revised report showing that 92% of mass public shootings between January 2009 and July 2014 took place in gun-free zones. If college campuses nationwide reflected on the findings of this report, it would become apparent that allowing concealed weapons on campuses would significantly lower the odds of attacks occurring. Campuses that allow conceal carry are utilizing one of the biggest measures to deter assaults. According to John R. Lott Jr., PhD, "when states passed concealed carry laws during the years we studied (1997-2005), the number of multiple-victim campus shootings declined by 84%. Deaths from these shootings plummeted on average by 90%, injuries by 82%.

Colleges should not be allowed to take away your personal protection unless they can provide a truly safe environment for students. Sadly, most campuses can’t guarantee that assaults won’t occur, so people must be allowed to arm themselves for protection. While some schools have security or law enforcement, rarely can they reach the scene of an assault fast enough to prevent it. If the victim or a bystander has a self-defense weapon, there is a much greater possibility of stopping the attack. Attackers also avoid areas that allow firearms, and knowingly target places that don’t allow them. On October 9th, the Crime Prevention Research Center released a revised report showing that 92% of mass public shootings between January 2009 and July 2014 took place in gun-free zones. If college campuses nationwide reflected on the findings of this report, it would become apparent that allowing concealed weapons on campuses would significantly lower the odds of attacks occurring. Campuses that allow conceal carry are utilizing one of the biggest measures to deter assaults. According to John R. Lott Jr., PhD, "when states passed concealed carry laws during the years we studied (1997-2005), the number of multiple-victim campus shootings declined by 84%. Deaths from these shootings plummeted on average by 90%, injuries by 82%.

While some people argue that allowing firearms on campus would cause more shootings and gun-related deaths, or make more students uncomfortable in their own classrooms, there are many facts and arguments to combat this. People with negative intentions will not be stopped by the law, and by removing gun-rights, the rights of people with good intentions would also be removed. There are examples of how concealed carry being allowed could’ve saved lives amid mass shootings, such as the Virginia Tech Massacre of

Not only can concealed carry help prevent and stop mass shootings on campuses before the police arrive; it can also help lower the crime rate. Renneker demonstrates that not allowing concealed carry on campus leads to a higher crime rate on campus by citing the following, much in line with Fortunato’s findings on concealed carry across the nation. In 2013 Boise State

“Colleges and universities occupy a special place in American society. They are much more than a series of buildings and collection of individuals. Instead, they are dynamic living and learning environments where individuals with varying levels of maturity interact, often under stressful circumstances. While recognizing the right of responsible individuals to possess firearms under other circumstances, the unique characteristics of a university campus make the presence of firearms problematic. The shootings that have occurred in recent years at US colleges and universities have generated passionate debate about how best to prevent such violence and whether persons should be allowed to carry concealed guns on campuses. Experts believe there is no credible evidence that students or staff carrying guns would reduce crime. In fact, research has shown that the brains of most college students have not fully developed regarding impulse control and judgment” (Dickerson). Therefore, guns should not be allowed on college campuses because it would lead to an escalation in violent crime, distract from the learning environment, and lead to accidental discharge incidents.

Recently we have been hearing all kinds of horror stories of school shootings. People going off the deep end, deciding to massacre students and teachers at schools across the nation for no reason. There was the Sandy Hook shooting a few years back, when some man decided to go to an elementary school and kill anyone, kids and teachers alike. There was the shooting on a college campus recently, where no one was hurt because of the textbooks in their bags. Shootings like these seem to be more common recently, and with the debate over gun control laws who knows how this will end. Some people argue that teachers need carry a gun to school in case of a shooting, but is that the best thing to do? Not really. You are bringing a weapon in to a setting where students are supposed to feel safe and secure, not threatened by the chance of being shot. Teachers and students should not be allowed to carry handguns on college campuses because there should be no need for one, it is a danger to everyone, and there are other ways to deal with emergency situations.

This is a world where gun control could easily be seen as one of the most controversial topics around. And it brings up the controversy, could it make college campuses safer if a select number of students and staff are able to bring concealed weapons? It could theoretically prove that students would be able to have the chance to protect themselves if a shooter were to get to the school and start rampaging, but others could see it as too much of a random thing to happen and too much panic could happen with many students running around, causing even more chaos for everyone there.

Few issues are capable of terrorizing Americans like a shooting on a college campus. Each time, any possibility of debate is drowned out by sensationalized media coverage. There are two polarizing opinions. One argues that responsible, concealed weapon carrying citizens could have prevented the loss of life. The other blames the proliferation of firearms as the primary cause of the violence. Perhaps this powerful rhetoric led our legislature to allow campus carry on our campus, Texas State University. This dichotomy of opinion will be explored through a thorough examination of handgun carrying, Texas policy, and academic research on the topic.