Concealed handgun carriers tired of firing blanks
By: Sarah Bleau
Issue date: 12/3/08 Section: News
It's been more than a year since the Virginia Tech shootings, and since then, student safety on campus has been a hot topic at schools across the country.
Now a petition is in circulation with more than 35,000 college students, professors, college employees and parents saying they want to legalize carrying concealed handguns on campus.
The group, Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, wrote on their Web site that they believe "holders of state-issued concealed handgun licenses should be allowed the same measure of personal protection on college campuses that current laws afford them virtually everywhere else."
Alaska and Vermont don't require a permit, according to the SCCC Web site. At age 18, people can carry concealed with a license in Indiana, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, New Hampshire and Maine.
"It's personal protection. It all comes down to self defense," said Dudley Kelso III, student representative for SCCC at The University of Memphis. "[Students] should be allowed within their right to defend themselves on this campus just like they do on most every other place statewide."
The incident at Virginia Tech might have played a role in why there has been a rise in the group's support for concealed carry on campus, but Kelso said it wasn't what made up his mind. He does think that if students could legally carry weapons, they might have prevented Seung-Hui Cho from killing as many people as he did.
Having students carry weapons on campus might not be the best solution to violence prevention according to Derek Myers, deputy director of The University's police department.
"It's easier to sort things out when I don't have a Good Samaritan who's armed on the scene," Myers said. "It takes longer to sort out who's doing what to whom. You have to treat everyone as a suspect. It's making a bad situation worse or making it harder to do my job."
SCCC argues on their Web site that "police are trained to expect both armed bad guys and armed good guys." The group said armed civilians would be easy to detect because they would be hiding with a crowd while an armed assailant would be shooting at the crowd.
Now a petition is in circulation with more than 35,000 college students, professors, college employees and parents saying they want to legalize carrying concealed handguns on campus.
The group, Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, wrote on their Web site that they believe "holders of state-issued concealed handgun licenses should be allowed the same measure of personal protection on college campuses that current laws afford them virtually everywhere else."
Alaska and Vermont don't require a permit, according to the SCCC Web site. At age 18, people can carry concealed with a license in Indiana, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, New Hampshire and Maine.
"It's personal protection. It all comes down to self defense," said Dudley Kelso III, student representative for SCCC at The University of Memphis. "[Students] should be allowed within their right to defend themselves on this campus just like they do on most every other place statewide."
The incident at Virginia Tech might have played a role in why there has been a rise in the group's support for concealed carry on campus, but Kelso said it wasn't what made up his mind. He does think that if students could legally carry weapons, they might have prevented Seung-Hui Cho from killing as many people as he did.
Having students carry weapons on campus might not be the best solution to violence prevention according to Derek Myers, deputy director of The University's police department.
"It's easier to sort things out when I don't have a Good Samaritan who's armed on the scene," Myers said. "It takes longer to sort out who's doing what to whom. You have to treat everyone as a suspect. It's making a bad situation worse or making it harder to do my job."
SCCC argues on their Web site that "police are trained to expect both armed bad guys and armed good guys." The group said armed civilians would be easy to detect because they would be hiding with a crowd while an armed assailant would be shooting at the crowd.