By Jon via americanconcealed.com
Dismissing college students as bumbling idiots incapable of assuming adult responsibilities could end up costing lives. Theirs. Making the argument that college students don’t deserve to lawfully arm themselves puts them in serious danger. Here are four good reasons why college students across should be allowed to carry. Ignoring them could result in (more) disaster on campus . . .
1 College Campuses are Targets for Violence
There have been a number of well-documented violent attacks involving an active shooters on college campuses in the past few years. The crowded spaces filled with busy, preoccupied students offer deranged individuals a target-rich environment. These incidents get lots of news exposure. And far more violence occurs on university campuses that is swept under the rug in order to keep up the polished images of many schools. Violent crimes like rape and physical assault are on the rise as student populations grow.
2 Colleges are Filled with Responsible, Law-Abiding Citizens
More often than not, students come from the local community and are taking classes part-time. Colleges and universities student bodies are no longer comprised solely young people fresh from home. Non-traditional older students are tax-paying citizens who obey the law, and they deserve the right to protect themselves by carrying concealed weapons when they choose. Assuming that every student on campus is just there to party is totally off target. So to speak.
3 There is Just as Much Stress Off Campus as There is On Campus
A common argument against campus carry is that college students are under too much stress to to be “allowed” the privilege of armed self defense. Opponents say students are so worried about upcoming tests or roommate troubles that they couldn’t possibly be entrusted with a gun. But is life off campus any more sedate? Civilian disarmers need to face facts and realize that anyone living and working in the community deals with just as much stress – maybe even more – than a college student. Millions of certified and trained citizens carry concealed weapons without issue, every day, while bearing up under car payments, mortgages, taking the kids to school, and high-pressure careers.
It’s time to stop assuming that all college students are immature party animals who don’t deserve to protect themselves when a violent criminal targets them. Most students are there to work hard, often after already putting in a shift on the job elsewhere. Treat college students with the same respect you’d give anyone else living in your community, and make armed self-defense a reality for them.
I would love to have my life be as stress free as it was back in college. I’d be able to work four hours a day and kick back the rest of the time.
Your college sounds nice. I wish my current life in college was that easy.
He must not have been a EE major.
4 hours you say?
What in gods name did you study? I spent 10 hours today between classes and homework, and I have another six coming up tomorrow.
Plus, you know, work whenever I’m not in class so I can afford to eat, buy my 150 dollar textbooks, and pay my bills.
Carrying eliminates stress in my camp.
Wish a certain university in Waco allowed lawful carry…
I would love to carry if I could. But Virginia Tech has decided that disarming me helps from another attack from a deranged gunman who cares as much for human life as he does about the stipulations against firearms on campus.
Another gun free zone.
Does anybody still believe in that fairy tale?
I started college when I was just sixteen. I was as immature and irresponsible as I could be. I was always armed but I never hurt anybody. And I don’t think I was all that special.
When I was going to grad school at Seattle U, I carried every day. I was also walking half a mile through First Hill to class (and then back) after dark most of the time.
I’d rather risk expulsion than death.
The shootings are usually in gun free zones in states where it is difficult or impossible for average citizens to carry handguns.
Totally agree! No campus, church, school, college, theater, or other public place should be allowed to be posted “gun free zone” unless metal sectors and armed police are employed to assure they are truly gun free!
Agreed, as to the public places meaning publicly-owned places like schools, government buildings, etc.
I can’t agree on the public places meaning open to the public but still privately owned, like churches, restaurants, etc.
It’s their private property and you have no real right even to be there, let alone to demand that they allow guns, even less to demand that they install super security. Go eat/shop someplace else if you don’t like it.
They have a right to make their own property a gun free zone if they like. Exercising their right does not impose some special obligation to provide your personal security, any more than you exercising your right to carry imposes an obligation on you to defend anyone. You want to visit their private property, then you agree to their terms. If not, that’s cool, too, but you can’t go there.
I’m in favor of consenting adults agreeing to the terms upon which they will associate with each other. We don’t need government coming in to accomplish by force on your behalf what you couldn’t agree to peacefully on your own.
I carried everyday to my school in southeastern VA despite their rules/laws. It stayed in my bag with a dry pipe during class. Leaving class headed to truck I would stop at restroom, charge, and cc holster. Never had issue in 2 years.
Treat college students like helpless children, and most of them will live down to your expectations.
Treat them like competent adults, and most of them will live up to your expectations.
“Violent crimes like rape and physical assault are on the rise…”
Please cite your source for this bit of statistical information.
Or are you agreeing with the gun-grabbers about the “epidemic” of violent crime in the U.S.?
According to the latest FBI crime report, rape (legacy definition) is up 2.4% and aggravated assault is up 2.0% over the previous year.
I believe all other crimes continue to decrease. Check the report.
The presence of “gun-free” zones proves the typical educator doesn’t possess the intellectual heft to reason his/her/its way out of a wet paper bag. They are least qualified to be in charge of another’s’ well-being.
As demonstrated by the 160 panty waist professors at UTA that get the willies just thinking that they won’t know whether someone is carrying.
I was a non-traditional student at a Texas university until 2011. I am also very much a supporter of concealed carry for law abiding and responsible citizens, but I cannot in good conscience support the idea of todays traditional college students carrying handguns anywhere, let alone on campus.
I don’t know if Mr. Zimmerman has spent a great amount of time with college students today, but in my six years at university I met maybe a handful of traditional students that I would trust armed. By and large the students that I spent time with were childish, self-centered and had absolutely no situational awareness. Most of these students had there faces buried in their cell phones and ear phones in there ears listening to the soundtrack of their lives coming out of the iPod.
Ironically, the few students that I spent time with that I would trust to have the maturity to carry a gun were rabidly anti-gun, but responsible to a fault.
Campus carry for faculty, staff and, maybe, non-traditional students (over 30) I can get behind, but as much as it breaks my heart to say it, I cannot get behind the idea of irresponsible traditional students carrying guns anywhere, let alone in the high stress environment of the modern university campus.
I met maybe a handful of traditional students that I would trust armed.
Hubris much? Frankly, nobody gives a sh1t who you would trust armed.
I’m betting many of the kids you’re referring to wouldn’t be allowed to carry a concealed firearm since the minimum age is generally 21. And also, allowing concealed carry on campus doesn’t mean that everyone will get their license and start carrying. It means that probably 5% or probably less people aged 21 and above on a college campus would carry. The national average is on the order of about 1 in 20 adults aged 21 and above has a CHL. I say “probably less” because I’m presuming that ratio goes up the closer you get to 21 years old as many people don’t get their CHLs in their early 20s (I didn’t)…so maybe 1 in 30 or 1 in 40, somewhere in that range, for adults aged 21-23. I haven’t bothered to Google the statistic for people in their early 20s that have CHL, so I’m rationalizing, but you get my point. The point is that less than 5% of the people legally able to get their CHL would actually acquire it, and at college ages for most Universities for people legally allowed to acquire their CHL (21-23 years old), probably closer to 2-3%.
Even stipulating that all your anecdotes are data, many of them don’t support an argument that they shouldn’t be carrying. If I have a gun and no situational awareness, I’m no hazard to anyone, it just means someone will manage to attack me in spite of the gun.
“. . . By and large the students that I spent time with were childish, self-centered and had absolutely no situational awareness. Most of these students had there faces buried in their cell phones and ear phones in there ears . . .”
That may have had a lot to do with the school you were attending (if it was UT Austin it was a absolute certainty). The kinds of students you run into can differ greatly. At my school, where the students were heavily working-class or farm and ranch kids, most knew how to fix things, had jobs that often required skills or required them to acquire skills to remain employed, and were overall pretty doggone solid. They were just the kinds of people, both men and women, who could reliably come to school armed. Everytime I completed a class with these students, I left thinking that there was still hope for the world.
Most states that license concealed carry require, without exceptional circumstances, that the person be 21 or over (i.e., legally old enough to drink or to buy handguns). Thus, even if campus carry is allowed, the vast majority of undergrads–the least responsible of the college crowd–will be able to carry, while returning vets and other adults taking classes will be. Is this fact not apparent to those who would prohibit guns from classrooms?
“Thus, even if campus carry is allowed, the vast majority of undergrads–the least responsible of the college crowd–will be able to carry…”
I think you mean “will NOT be able to carry”.
This is why (amongst other reasons) I carry at my SoCal college, and this is why we’re fighting SB707’s attempt to remove California’s CCW exemption to our GFSZA so hard.
California – surprisingly – has it right, and we want it to stay that way.
I (surprisingly) agree with this. IF you can manage to get the permit, you’re very, very unrestricted in CA.
All you need is shall issue and you’ll be among the best states in the country as far as “bearing” arms goes 🙂 (“keeping” arms laws will still suck, however.)
How about today’s attack at Umpqua Community College in Oregon? Is that a good reason for college students to carry concealed?
As a high school student I shouldn’t feel safe at all. As a homeschooled student though I’ve never felt safer In my class rooms knowing there was a gun in the room. When I graduate I won’t be old enough to cc at whatever college I attend but I do plan to keep a shotgun in the car until I turn 21 and after that, It will probably still be there.
There are a lot of staff, faculty and visitors on campuses, not just students. Students who are adults should be treated just like every other adult.
And trust me on this—more than a few of those kinds of folks come to school armed regardless of what the rules may say. It’s all very discrete but it happens.
Argument #3 isn’t really a reason to carry. Instead it’s a solid rebuttal to an argument that carry should be forbidden. (And “shouldn’t be forbidden” isn’t necessarily the same as “good idea.”)
Reasons 1 and 2 are good enough for me in any case.
If you are under 21, in a state the requires you to be 21 to cc, but at a college that allows carry could you concealed carry without a license since it is technically your home?
Rather to be judged by 12 than carried by 6.
Not to date myself, but as a UT alum, albeit from 25 years ago, here’s a couple of observations.
in the 80’s, there were ALOT of guns on campus. UT Admin may choose to ignore this, but the dorms were full of guns. Strangely, I can’t remember a single instance where these guns… handguns, rifles, shotguns and even evil black rifles either spontaneously atacked the student body or talked thier owner into doing so while I was a student there. Nope not a one.
My daughter, who, as the “baby”, is the only one who has not served in the military. She attends another university in Texas…not the People Republic of UT…but will be doing a CHL course as her 21st birthday present. BTW, she made a couple of 1000 yard shots with the .338 at last years Texas Firearms Fest….
Is your car a safe zone with texting and driving? Why did the dirtbag stay about as far away from Texas with its lawful campus carry. Why didn’t this dirtbag go to Texas to show how tough he really is? THIS is why people should not be harassed.
No double standards put DC politicians on Obamacare and SS.Thanks for your support and vote. Pass the word. mrpresident2016.com
Campus carry means the shooters would choose community colleges instead. The vast majority of CC students are under 21, as was the case in Oregon.
So even though conceal carry is legal on the Oregon campus, few if any students were old enough, and even the one security officer on campus was banned from carrying a weapon.
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