Gun Crazy: Firearms Proponents Want a World Where College Kids Carry Concealed Weapons

By Liliana Segura, AlterNet. Posted December 9, 2008.

In Utah, currently the only state that allows concealed weapons on its campuses, the relatively new law was fought by tooth and nail by school administrators like then-president of the University of Utah, who told the Christian Science Monitor in 2002: "Given the unique environment of a college campus, that is not a place for guns." Another professor vowed early retirement if the university if the law was rolled back. "I don't care if it's guns or Darwin or divine intervention," law professor John Flynn said. "The state legislature has no business invading the university's right to manage its own internal affairs."

Exasperated gun enthusiasts like to ridicule the notion that a campus's learning environment might be compromised by the introduction of lethal weapons. As one lobbyist and former Utah politician put it (a bit redundantly), "With a concealed weapon, you don't know it's concealed. The idea of something no one knows about having a chilling effect on the free exchange of ideas just doesn't have a lot of logic."

Not surprisingly, some students disagree. "I feel less safe knowing that a stranger sitting beside me in class may have a gun in his or her backpack," one University of Utah student told CNN earlier this year. Imagine that.

The gun lobby and SCCC also like to draw a distinction between the "bad guys" -- people who bring guns onto campus illegally -- and the "good guys" -- permit-holding gun owners who could save the day if it became necessary. (Supporters of concealed weapons on campus cite the many laws and regulations that will ensure that guns are only in the hands of "good guys.") It's a pretty simplistic way to classify human beings -- and years of murder statistics haven't exactly borne it out.

Most recently, an unprecedented 38-page report has found a connection between weak gun laws and fatal shootings.

"States with lax gun laws had higher rates of handgun killings, fatal shootings of police officers, and sales of weapons that were used in crimes in other states, according to a study underwritten by a group of more than 300 U.S. mayors," reported the Washington Post on Friday.

According to the Post:

"The study is the first of its kind and comes after the mayors and 30 law enforcement organizations successfully lobbied Congress last year to release portions of the ATF data. Public access to the reports had been restricted since the 2003 passage of the 'Tiahrt amendment,' authored by Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) and drafted with help from the National Rifle Association. Tiahrt said at the time that he was 'fulfilling the needs of my friends who are firearms dealers.'"

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This summer's pro-gun Supreme Court ruling in DC v. Heller actually addressed the question of firearms on campus in a way that should do no favors to the pro-gun-on-campus crowd. In his majority opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, "Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited."

"… (N)othing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms."

But while Heller's otherwise sweeping implications seemed to fall short of a sanctioning of guns on campus, the ruling nevertheless emboldened the pro-gun crowd, who heralded it as a victory for gun rights. And despite the defeated bills from earlier this year, legislation to allow concealed weapons on campus is being renewed and pushed in at least a dozen states.

For the moment, the gun lobby and SCCC seems to be directing much of its energy to Texas, where the debate is alive and well. (A 62-page "Texas edition" of the SCCC handbook is available on its site.) As recently reported by a Dallas/Ft. Worth media outlet, Texas lawmakers reconvening next month are filing multiple piece of legislation to broaden the state's concealed handgun law. The proposed bills "would allow permit holders to carry their guns on private and public college campuses. For gun rights groups, it's priority number one."

See more stories tagged with: texas, supreme court, utah, nra, second amendment, students for concealed ca, virginia tech massacre, dc v. heller

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