The tragedy of the Virginia Tech shootings in April left behind a lingering, uneasy feeling about school security, much like the aftermath of the Columbine shootings in 1999. Two sides quickly rose to provide an answer to students' desperate calls for protection: Add heavier restrictions on gun regulations or loosen current restrictions. The latter, being the more overtly extreme and irrational, seems to have hit a new low.
Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, with a membership of 8,000 students, is a non-partisan group that promotes the importance for students with handgun licenses to be able to bring their guns onto college campuses. The Virginia Tech incident only fueled the group's cause. It argues that if colleges allowed students to express their Second Amendment right on campus, it would be a safer place.
The truth actually lies polar-opposite with Students for Concealed Carry on Campus' claim. People can't fight fire with fire. Adding more guns to the equation doesn't create a more peaceful environment - campuses will instead be more prone to violence.
Guns being permitted on school grounds could have detrimental repercussions, including accidental firings, gun thefts and an increased risk of violent behavior because of provocation by peers or professors.
School should be a safe haven where students feel comfortable and secure; however, it's also a culprit of anxiety, experimentation and, therefore, impulsivity. Stress, frustration and guns don't make a mix to take a chance with.
Putting students' and the faculty's lives in immediate danger by allowing student gun owners to carry their guns on campus is irresponsible, impractical and counterproductive. Instead of preventing a disaster, campuses would be vulnerable to chaos.
Students for Concealed Carry on Campus claim they're deprived of their right to self-defense. But the refutation to their argument isn't about restricting freedoms - it's about responsibly laying out laws that won't create chaos; it's about the right thing to do. What's flawed about the radical group's rationale is that no one on campus should have a gun except for police officers. A college is an institution for higher learning. Students shouldn't be transporting weapons to class or be concerned about the possibility of other students concealing weapons. Also, a student shouldn't need a gun to protect his or herself because campus should be a safe, controlled environment.
If students should organize and promote any change regarding protection, it should be to increase safety on school campuses via weapon scanners, security cameras and police.
Students shouldn't have the right to bring weapons on campus, but they should have the right to feel safe while on campus.
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