Mark Cooper is the campus organizer for Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. He can be contacted at [email protected].A common thread in education is establishing “weapon-free” areas. The idea is that by banning deadly weapons, you would make the area safer.
However, did Seung-Hui Cho, Luke Woodam or the Columbine killers care whether or not they were breaking laws regarding “gun-free zones”? How about countless rapists and violent felons who committed crimes on campuses knowing that their prey wouldn’t be armed? Citizens who have a license to carry a concealed firearm would be committing a felony if they carried [a firearm] on campus.
Look at how armed students helped end the Texas clock tower shooting in 1966, the shooting at Appalachia Law School in 2002 or how an armed high school assistant principle in Pearl ended Luke Woodam’s killing spree. In those three incidents, police had no trouble determining who the “good guy” was and who wasn’t.
The problem with any “gun-free zone” is not just that criminals ignore them and commit crimes in spite of the law. They are made safer by the very law that renders responsible citizens vulnerable. Consequently, they have areas of “easy targets” since it is safe to assume that law-abiding citizens will be unarmed. Let us even the playing field, urge the state legislature to pass concealed carry reform and allow those with firearms permits the option of carrying concealed on campuses.
Individuals who receive concealed carry permits are statistically shown to be much more responsible than the average citizen. Those without the desire or ability to have permits will be made safer because of the fact that those intent on doing evil will not know if their prey is armed or not.