Against Concealed Guns on College Campuses

[Bruce Jackson]

http://www.nextgenjournal.com/2012/10/unbearable-arms-an-argument-against-concealed-guns-on-college-campuses/

http://tinyurl.com/8hf5y6y


Against Concealed Guns on College Campuses

by Charlie Tyson | University of Virginia

F Posted in: College, Voices P Posted on: October 18, 2012
Charlie Tyson

I’m a sham of a Southerner, or maybe I’m just ashamed.

As a Chapel Hill native, I grew up among New England transplants and
sons and daughters of college professors.

Signs of Southern culture — bluegrass, fried food, yes ma’ams and no
sirs — were bent and molded to fit the vaguely bourgeois liberalism
that dominated our Democratic stronghold, smack-dab in the middle of a
red state.

Growing up, I saw rural North Carolina as a wilderness and in some
ways I still do. Small Southern towns have unique social
sensibilities: friendliness that can become threatening and a
community so tight-knit, it can oppress.

I was driving through the rural Piedmont region a few weeks ago, when
an antique car show caught my eye. The exposed engine of a 1930′s
Chevrolet looked like an accordion. Country music blared as a man
shoved a bag of greasy popcorn into my hands. It was a honky-tonk
affair.

A note of violence, however, underlay the Southern cheer. I arrived at
the silent auction table to see one item in particular — a homemade
knife — racking up multiple bids.

A woman sporting blonde hair and a baseball cap nudged me and pointed
to what she declared the best item up for auction: a gift card for a
handgun training class.

“I took it,” she said. “You had to hit the target 25 times out of 30
to pass. I got 29.”

Despite my Carolina upbringing, I have never fired a gun. From what
I’ve heard, guns are devices that fire projectiles, ones that can bore
holes through flesh. You can use them to kill people if you’d like,
and if someone attacks you first, this is called “standing your
ground.” It’s protected by law in 24 states.

But it’s not just the Southerners who love guns. There are nearly 300
million privately owned handguns, rifles and shotguns in the United
States. That works out to almost one gun per person.

Though the rates of gun ownership have declined in recent years, the
gun lobby remains locked and loaded. Their latest target? The right
for students to pack guns on college campuses.

According to The Wall Street Journal, five states — Oregon,
Mississippi, Wisconsin, Utah, and Colorado — now have provisions
permitting concealed weapons on public campuses. Twenty-one states
prohibit it, while 24 states have left the issue of gun policy up to
individual universities.

The 2007 Virginia Tech shooting occupies a curious place in the debate
over concealed firearms on college campuses. Those for gun control,
and those against, frequently use the Blacksburg massacre to justify
their respective claims.

However, proponents for guns on-campus who cite the Virginia Tech
tragedy do so with little validity. The argument that having more guns
on college campuses will decrease gun violence is comically misguided.

The view stems from a distrust of government institutions, including
police, which seems common among the far right. If the cops don’t get
there in time (and they won’t), folks want to make damn sure they’re
able to protect themselves.

It also reflects the assumptions on which gun-carry proponents
operate: that people are innately violent; that it’s every man for
himself; that individuals have the right and capacity to carry out
justice.

In reality, more guns would cause problems for police in responding to
an active shooter situation. If everyone’s brandishing weapons, it’s
hard to know who the bad guys are.

More guns also equal the potential for more violence and deaths should
the situation escalate. Not to mention, the heavy consumption of
alcohol and drugs on many campuses could lead to lethal gun-related
incidents or accidents.

Another thing that sets me off about the gun-carry debate is the idea
of instruments of violence entering what I consider a sacred space.
Unless you’re taking a gun-training course for which you won a gift
card at a car show, firearms should never enter the classroom.

Guns intimidate. They assert brute physical realities above the free
intellectual inquiry and production of knowledge to which universities
must be dedicated.

A classroom is a place where students and teachers push and challenge
each other. Though it’s unlikely an academic debate would lead to a
violent confrontation, the mere presence of firearms would hamper the
airing of honest, sometimes controversial opinions.

Let’s not forget: the First Amendment comes before the second.

In an ideal world, guns would not exist. Introducing them into
universities, which offer our best chance of giving people the tools
to create a society closer to ideal, seems cynical and fatalistic. If
the only way to keep college students safe is to have them pack heat,
we can consider U.S. higher education a failure.

I have never fired a gun. I’ve never had to. I’ve led a privileged,
insular middle-class existence. My cultural biases are clear: I don’t
like guns and I don’t understand them. Firearms make some people feel
safer. For me, they trigger feelings of deep unease.

When it comes to the matter of concealed weapons on campus, I’m
sticking to my guns. Others can stick to theirs.



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