Bringing Schoolbooks to a Gunfight

Thanks to "gun-free zones" that exist on most college campuses, those who are interested in committing mass murder are given plenty of opportunities in classrooms and lecture halls full of unarmed students whose only hope of fighting back consists of throwing a heavy biology book. Some are working to change that:

It was a sickeningly familiar scene. A student-gunman opened fire Thursday during a lecture at Northern Illinois University, killing five and wounding 15 before turning the gun on himself. The deadly spree was the fifth school shooting this week—and a traumatic reminder that for all the efforts to improve campus security nationwide since the massacre at Virginia Tech last year, students and faculty remain disturbingly vulnerable.

A nonprofit organization called Students for Concealed Carry on Campus would like to change that. The group, whose 12,000 members nationwide include college students, faculty and parents, champions legislation that would allow licensed gun owners to carry concealed weapons on campus, in the hope that an alert and well-trained citizen could stop a deranged shooter before he or she could do serious damage. According to the National Conference on State Legislatures, 13 states are currently considering some form of "concealed carry" legislation aimed at campuses. Utah is the group's model; after a state Supreme Court ruling found that the state university had violated a law allowing permit holders to carry concealed weapons, the school agreed that guns could legally be carried on its grounds. Some states, like Colorado, do not explicitly ban licensed students and faculty from carrying hidden weapons onto school grounds, though most universities in such states impose restrictions of their own.

There are signs that the "concealed carry" group was making headway even before the tragedy at Northern Illinois. Earlier this month the South Dakota House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to force state universities to allow students to carry weapons on campus, according to GOP state Rep. Tom Brunner. The bill, which Brunner sponsored, recently died in the state senate, but Brunner said he intends to bring it back as soon as he can. "It's not an issue that's going to go away," Brunner said. "We feel pretty passionate [that] students and teachers should have a right to defend themselves, and weapons on campus should be a part of the plan."

If someone has gone through the process of background checks and licensing exams and has been found worthy by the state to have a concealed weapons permit, why shouldn't they be able to exercise that permit wherever and whenever they want? What makes college administrators more knowledgable about the weapons issue than law enforcement officials?

There are, of course, detractors to the idea of more guns on campus:

But critics say such legislation would not have stopped suspected Northern Illinois shooter Steven P. Kazmierczak from carrying out his violent spree. (The Illinois legislature is considering a bill that would relax the state's concealed-carry restrictions.) Kazmierczak snuck a shotgun and three handguns onto campus in a guitar case and under a coat before walking into a geology lecture and opening fire. Police have recovered 48 bullet casings and six shotgun shells from the crime scene. "It's ridiculous to say someone with a gun could have saved the day," said Brian Malte, the state legislation and politics director at the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, "with people running all over the place and people getting caught in the crossfire." Malte says his group opposes the concealed-carry legislation, because allowing firearms to saturate college campuses, where young people drink heavily and live communally, would only heighten the danger of deadly violence.

No one has suggested that an armed student in that lecture hall could have stopped the violence outright. However, a gunman who is distracted by someone shooting back at him will not have the leisurely opportunity to gun down innocents as he would have otherwise had, and it's highly likely the death and injury toll would be reduced.

As long as we continue to make vapid declarations of "gun-free zones", we'll continue to set up innocent citizens as shooting gallery targets for those looking for an easy massacre. My advice to students with concealed carry permits - carry all the time. Keep the guns hidden so you don't incur the wrath of the liberals, but keep them on you wherever you go. I'd rather have to explain to campus administrators why I violated their gun ban and stopped a shooting rampage than have them explain to my family why I died a needless death.

I'll talk about this subject and more on Monday's BlogTalkRadio program which you can hear by clicking on the icon. Feel free to call in and join the conversation. The show kicks off at 8pm PT Monday night.

I've expanded Monday's show to 45 minutes to give us plenty of time. The call-in number will be (347) 347-5547.