The debate on whether college students should be able to withold concealed firearms on campuses, including dorms, libraries, and classsrooms has been an ongoing discussion. The Philadelphia Inquirer posted an article by Kathy Boccella called 'Student group pushes for right to carry concealed weapons on campus' discussing the issue. On February 14th, 2008, a former student of Northern Illionis University went on a rampage killing 6 people, and wounding 15. Another inicident occured at Virginia Tech, where a gunman slaughtered 33 people and left over 30 people injured in April of 2007. Some believe that having guns on campus would allow them for better protection because they would have the oppurtunity to defend themselves. Others are opposed to the idea, arguing it would attract violence and could potentionally be misused. I believe that students should not be permitted to carry concealed fire arms on college campuses, below I will explain how I came up with my decision. .
If college campuses legalize the right to obtain a concealed weapon there will be much more violence in our college education systems. Allowing college students to carry a concealed weapon on campus makes for many oppurtunities of potential misuse of the weapon. Most college students don't have experience shooting or holding a gun, therefor, they could make a mistake and unintentionally harm somebody or even themselves! The first article is called "Reducing Firearm-Related Violence on College Campuses-Police Chiefs' Perceptions and Practices" written by Amy Thompson, James H. Price, Adam J. Mrdjenovich, and Jagdish Khubchandani. This article was found in the Journal of American College Health, Volume 58, Number 3. In this article the authors discuss the views of college campus security/police officers and how they feel about fire arms on campus. Many believed that allowing concealed fire arms on campus would cause more morbidity and mortality.
