Campus Under Fire
Representatives from The Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus vs. Students for Concealed Carry on Campus: A Debate of Whether or Not Students Should Be Allowed To Carry Concealed Guns on a College Campus”
Students for Concealed Carry on Campus Bio:
Students for Concealed Carry on Campus is a national, non-partisan, grassroots organization composed of more than 43,000 college students, professors, college employees, parents of college students, and concerned citizens who believe that 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. SCCC has members in all fifty states and the District of Columbia.
Both the membership and the leadership of SCCC are made up of individuals with very diverse political backgrounds. Among SCCC's leaders you'll find conservatives, moderates, liberals, Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Independents, etc. The members of SCCC look beyond partisanship, toward the common goal of achieving state laws and school policies based on factual evidence rather than emotional rhetoric.
College campuses, though typically safe, do play host to every type of violent crime found in the rest of society, from assault to rape to murder. Recent high-profile shootings and armed abductions on college campuses clearly demonstrate that "gun free zones" serve to disarm only those law-abiding citizens who might otherwise be able to protect themselves.
Because numerous independent researchers and state agencies agree that concealed handgun license holders are five times less likely than non-license holders to commit violent crimes; because no other type of location has seen an increased rate of violent crime since concealed carry became legal there; because the eleven U.S. colleges/universities that currently allow concealed carry on campus (and have done so for a combined total of more than eighty semesters) have not seen any resulting incidents of gun violence, gun accidents, or gun thefts; and because college campuses are open environments that lack screening measures such as metal detectors, X-ray machines, and controlled points of entry, SCCC feels that there is no pragmatic basis for declaring college campuses off-limits to concealed carry by the same trained, licensed adults (age twenty-one and above in most states) who lawfully and safely carry concealed handguns in locations such as office buildings, movie theaters, grocery stores, shopping malls, restaurants, churches, banks, etc.
The Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus Bio:
The Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus is urging colleges and universities across the country to band together to oppose the gun lobby’s agenda to push guns into college campuses by signing onto a resolution that opposes legislation that would mandate that colleges and universities allow students to carry concealed handguns on campus. The list of colleges and universities signing the resolution will be provided to lawmakers in states where legislation is pending as a way of showing the educational community’s opposition to such legislation.
To date, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and more than 170 individual colleges and universities have signed the resolution.
The case against guns on campus is strong. There are many reasons why it would be dangerous to introduce guns into colleges and universities.
• Arming students would make campuses more dangerous every hour of every day
• Armed students would be accountable to no one
• Arming students would not deter the rare campus shooting
• Academic debate cannot flourish in a room full of guns
• There are better ways to make college campuses safer
Conceal Carry Permit Licensees Threat to Public Safety
A growing body of evidence shows that allowing private citizens to carry concealed handguns in public creates a new public safety threat. Since May 2007 conceal carry permit holders have killed at least 9 law enforcement officers and 148 private citizens.
More Guns-More Gun Deaths
Contrary to the myth promulgated by the gun lobby that students would be safer if they were allowed to carry guns on campus, allowing students to bring guns on college campuses would increase the risk of gun violence on campus.
