Alongside books and utensils, some students want to bring their guns to class.
Protection, they argue, is necessary given the statistics. Dozens of mass shootings in the past three decades, with at least 150 victims killed in shootings including four or more fatalities in 2012 alone.
Some groups like the Students for Concealed Carry and the National Rifle Association suggest the possession of concealed guns would prevent such massacres. In a press conference following the Newtown school shooting, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre argued that “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
While some states have a policy allowing for lawful concealed carry, most campuses, including the University, prohibit guns entirely.
The student handbook bans weapons of any kind, superseding Ohio law which allows for concealed carry with a proper permit, said Jill Carr, senior associate vice president of Student Affairs and dean of students.
“Concealed carry is not an option,” Carr said. “I’ve been here for 37 years and the policy for the code of conduct has always been the same.”
Students caught with a weapon on campus will be subject to the student code of conduct, said Associate Dean of Students Michael Ginsburg. The severity of the punishment varies, depending on the weapon where the student was, he said.
He added that a student caught with a weapon in a residence hall would almost certainly face expulsion from the hall and perhaps with additional penalties.
Campus police would first interrogate the student and University administration would investigate and decide if the student should be charged, Ginsburg said.
The student would not be criminally charged if he owns a concealed carry permit, but could still face “serious consequences,” Ginsburg said.
College allows for concealed carry on campus, in residence halls
At least one campus has already began permitting concealed carry on its campus for students with a valid permit.
The University of Colorado Boulder changed its policy this past semester, after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in favor of a lawsuit brought by Students for Concealed Carry.
The SCC sued UCB this past March to make the school’s policy consistent with state law, which allowed for concealed carry, said Ryan Huff, spokesperson for the Colorado University Police Department.
Guns are allowed almost anywhere on campus, even classrooms, while remaining banned in most residence halls and ticketed sporting events and concerts.
“We’ve not had any incidents where someone’s fired a gun … this tells me that people who have those permits and want to carry on campus are educated,” Huff told The BG News in late November.
Just weeks prior, two people were injured when a gun accidentally fired at University of Colorado’s medical campus in Denver. The gun belonged to a staff member with a concealed carry permit, the Boulder newspaper Daily Camera reported.
“There are permit holders who think it’s their right to carry it and there are others who don’t want anyone to have guns,” he said. “As a police department, we’re not taking one side or the other.”
This issue is something Carr said the University is monitoring very closely to see if it becomes a trend.
A trend, she argues, which displays “a complete contradiction” to a university’s purpose.
“I think that this is an educative institution and part of our mission is to educate students to resolve conflicts in a manner that does not involve violence,” she said. “We should emphasize peaceful, appropriate ways of managing conflict.”
Students argue for, against concealed carry
Sophomore Morgan Holliger, secretary for College Democrats, said members may disagree on gun rights but most agree that concealed guns should be prohibited on campus.
“I just think that it would make me personally nervous that people could [legally] carry something that could kill me,” Holliger said. “I think it’s kind of terrifying.”
Holliger said crime prevention should be the responsibility of law enforcement professionals instead of college students without training and experience.
“On a college campus, I think that’s the recipe for confusion and disaster,” she said.
Victor Layton, a junior, a gun-owner and member of the NRA, plans to get his concealed carry permit next semester and argues the Ohio permit should apply to the University as well.
Concealed carry would make campus safer and prevent school shootings, Layton said, with students able to protect themselves when police weren’t around.
“It’s your right as an American,” Layton said. “It’s the second amendment; it’s not like it’s the fifth or sixth. The Founding Fathers thought this was an important amendment.”
