Pencils, Books, Laptops, and Guns on Campus

If you’re a non-US native, chances are you might not be clued into the long-standing debate about gun rights, specifically the issues of guns on campus. Currently, if you hold a permit in the US to carry a concealed weapon in your state (yes, this is more common than you think, I’m looking at the EU students…) you aren’t allowed to carry your gun onto federal property (read: state schools) or k-12 (age 6 – 17) schools of any kind.

The movement to carry guns on campus

In light of past and recent incidences of shootings on university campuses, a few states and gun rights activists have gotten (failed) movements going to bring legislation forward which may allow students to carry guns on campus. The main argument gun rights activist make seems to maintain that students are wanting the ability to defend themselves in the event of a violent incident on their university campus.

Gun rights a personal issue

While the reality of student shootings is that they happen quite rarely, in reading some interviews with survivors, you can see how the helplessness and anger they carry can translate into a logical argument that they in hindsight could have done something to change the course of events had they been equipped with firearms. Empowering students to carry firearms is not a debate taken lightly; in fact, the great state of Texas which was poised as the most likely to pioneer such a ruling, maintained that the concealed weapons ban in schools and federal property be upheld.

The recent shootings that had taken place in California (read here) are expected to bring this debate back to the table. Many students still maintain that a gun-free campus is the best way forward, in both preventing intentional violent incidents from happening and preventing accidental injury.

It seems unlikely that any state will pass the right to carry guns on campus any time soon. If you’re not familiar with the gun rights debate, you can see what students for gun-free campuses are talking about below:

http://current.com/entertainment/89979285_guns-on-campus-ut-walkout.htm

Personally, I agree with them that campuses are not the place for guns, but what do you think? Would a state which allowed students to carry guns on campus affect your choice on which university to attend?

Information on the US state-by-state can be found here >