Mo' Firearms, Mo' Problems
As seen in the Oregon Daily Emerald!
The common argument made by the NRA is that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. This is mostly true, with the notable exception of the scene in True Lies where Jamie Lee Curtis drops a machine gun and it kills a roomful of terrorists. I would argue, however, that guns make it significantly easier for people to kill other people, and the majority of people on Earth ought not to be killed in the first place, with the notable exception of roomfuls of terrorists and certain Somali pirates. This reasoning is why I’m against allowing concealed carry on university campuses.
Currently, concealed weapon permit holders can take their guns with them everywhere except for government buildings, bars, and college campuses. While most people agree that it’s a good idea to keep firearms away from edifices of government and booze, there are 11 colleges nationwide that allow concealed carry on campus, most notably every public college in Utah. Due to some inexplicable admiration of Utah, lawmakers in the Texas House of Representatives are in the process of passing a bill which will make it illegal for public universities in Texas to prohibit gun owners with concealed carry permits from bringing their weapons onto college campuses.
Advocates of concealed carry on campus allege that allowing students and faculty to bring firearms to school is in accordance with their second amendment rights. The website for Students for Concealed Carry on Campus (SCCC), a nationwide grassroots organization that advocates exactly what you’d expect it to, makes mention of the fact that experts agree concealed carry permit holders are five times less likely to commit violent crimes. What appears to be the central tenet of the call for allowing concealed carry on college campuses is the necessity to allow college students and faculty to defend themselves in the event of a Virginia Tech-style shooting spree.
I live in Portland and listen to NPR, and my family owns both a Prius and a Subaru (with a Volvo in our recent past) – it goes without saying that I disagree with the notion that a campus full of armed students and staff is any safer than an unarmed campus. While I agree that guns don’t kill people, people kill people, I also am a firm believer in “Mo’ firearms, mo’ problems,” especially on a college campus.
I’ve never heard a lot of people arguing to allow concealed carry in bars. Just about everyone seems to agree that a drunk person with ready access to a loaded gun is a genuinely bad thing. The thing is, after about 7:00 on any night of the week, a college campus and the surrounding areas become home to dozens of tiny bars, in the form of frat parties and freshmen playing beer pong in their dorm rooms. Have you ever seen two drunk people get into an argument? Imagine if one of them had a gun. It doesn’t even have to be a concealed carry permit holder – it could be a concealed carry permit holder’s roommate who took his gun. Let’s keep both alcohol and firearms prohibited on campus – people apparently respect at least one of those rules, and it’s been working out so far.
Of course, banning firearms on campus only ensures that law abiding students and staff don’t carry, which, in the eyes of the SCCC, puts us at the mercy of potential campus shooters. On the SCCC website, an image on the front page asks visitors which campus a mass murderer would be more likely to target – one that doesn’t allow students to carry guns, or one where students are allowed to be armed?
Here’s the thing, though – in my experience, mass murderers don’t seem to be terribly preoccupied with self-preservation. That could be why most of them commit suicide. And sure, an armed student body could potentially put down a campus shooter. But I think there’s a greater likelihood that if a campus shooter attacked an armed student body, responding police would have to deal with dozens of armed, adrenaline crazed people running around, and the resulting confusion wouldn’t do anybody any good. Mo’ firearms, mo’ problems.
If campus safety is that big of a concern, let’s let DPS have guns, not everyone else. Until then, I’m hesitant about allowing hundreds of guns onto campus in order to protect against one.
The common argument made by the NRA is that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. This is mostly true, with the notable exception of the scene in True Lies where Jamie Lee Curtis drops a machine gun and it kills a roomful of terrorists. I would argue, however, that guns make it significantly easier for people to kill other people, and the majority of people on Earth ought not to be killed in the first place, with the notable exception of roomfuls of terrorists and certain Somali pirates. This reasoning is why I’m against allowing concealed carry on university campuses.
Currently, concealed weapon permit holders can take their guns with them everywhere except for government buildings, bars, and college campuses. While most people agree that it’s a good idea to keep firearms away from edifices of government and booze, there are 11 colleges nationwide that allow concealed carry on campus, most notably every public college in Utah. Due to some inexplicable admiration of Utah, lawmakers in the Texas House of Representatives are in the process of passing a bill which will make it illegal for public universities in Texas to prohibit gun owners with concealed carry permits from bringing their weapons onto college campuses.
Advocates of concealed carry on campus allege that allowing students and faculty to bring firearms to school is in accordance with their second amendment rights. The website for Students for Concealed Carry on Campus (SCCC), a nationwide grassroots organization that advocates exactly what you’d expect it to, makes mention of the fact that experts agree concealed carry permit holders are five times less likely to commit violent crimes. What appears to be the central tenet of the call for allowing concealed carry on college campuses is the necessity to allow college students and faculty to defend themselves in the event of a Virginia Tech-style shooting spree.
I live in Portland and listen to NPR, and my family owns both a Prius and a Subaru (with a Volvo in our recent past) – it goes without saying that I disagree with the notion that a campus full of armed students and staff is any safer than an unarmed campus. While I agree that guns don’t kill people, people kill people, I also am a firm believer in “Mo’ firearms, mo’ problems,” especially on a college campus.
I’ve never heard a lot of people arguing to allow concealed carry in bars. Just about everyone seems to agree that a drunk person with ready access to a loaded gun is a genuinely bad thing. The thing is, after about 7:00 on any night of the week, a college campus and the surrounding areas become home to dozens of tiny bars, in the form of frat parties and freshmen playing beer pong in their dorm rooms. Have you ever seen two drunk people get into an argument? Imagine if one of them had a gun. It doesn’t even have to be a concealed carry permit holder – it could be a concealed carry permit holder’s roommate who took his gun. Let’s keep both alcohol and firearms prohibited on campus – people apparently respect at least one of those rules, and it’s been working out so far.
Of course, banning firearms on campus only ensures that law abiding students and staff don’t carry, which, in the eyes of the SCCC, puts us at the mercy of potential campus shooters. On the SCCC website, an image on the front page asks visitors which campus a mass murderer would be more likely to target – one that doesn’t allow students to carry guns, or one where students are allowed to be armed?
Here’s the thing, though – in my experience, mass murderers don’t seem to be terribly preoccupied with self-preservation. That could be why most of them commit suicide. And sure, an armed student body could potentially put down a campus shooter. But I think there’s a greater likelihood that if a campus shooter attacked an armed student body, responding police would have to deal with dozens of armed, adrenaline crazed people running around, and the resulting confusion wouldn’t do anybody any good. Mo’ firearms, mo’ problems.
If campus safety is that big of a concern, let’s let DPS have guns, not everyone else. Until then, I’m hesitant about allowing hundreds of guns onto campus in order to protect against one.