Guns on College Campus

Colleges around the nation are giving students the permission to carry guns on their campuses. This threatens the learning environment for each student, and their safety. To stop this common issue, guns should not be permitted on college campuses.

When a disaster strikes, students should not be the ones holding the gun. College students around the U.S struggle with alcohol and drugs. There comes a consequence to illegal drinking and partaking in drugs, especially when a handgun is nearby. This means that with students influenced by alcohol and drugs, it is not safe for them to be able to carry their own gun while on campus; however, there is no law against loaded guns kept in car compartments. One campus has already witnessed the effects of guns on their campus.“The shooting deaths of 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus in 2007”(dailytojan.com). This shooting was known as the most deadly shooting in all of american history. The gunman, Seung-Hi Cho, was believed to be planning the shooting for a very long time. He had purchased two guns some weeks before the shooting. He was not under the influence of drugs, however had a past of being bullied. This might have somehow triggered him to shoot his classmates. Campuses gun free would leave the danger of potential shootings, accidental or not, clear. A campus without guns would be a more safe campus.

According to Daniel Charnoff, “College campuses… are places of learning and trust. Guns should simply not be permitted to intrude on the positive environment that so many colleges seek to create.” As a campus, every student should be able to trust the people around them. Knowing a gun is present on their campus would give awareness to students of danger. This might be found troubling and distract students from more important things, such as their studies. As for students struggling with suicidal thoughts, trust may not always be the most important thing to glue a campus together. Of our population of young adults ages 18-24, suicide and homicide are the top two leading deaths. College student suicide rates come between 6.5 and 7.5 per 100,000. This is about half the rate for a non-student. However, 15 percent of graduate students and 18 percent of non-graduates have considered suicide as well (keepgunsoffcampus.org). College campuses are full of young adults between these ages. For guns to be handled within the campuses freely, students have the opportunity to use them for wrong purposes, such as attempting suicide. There would be more peace without guns on campuses.

Some might say that guns could be used as a self defense tool, but specialists say otherwise. Studies show that guns are more likely to be used unintentionally than for self defense. Even trained gun holders admit to not even knowing the gun is loaded. Using a gun as self defense can cause more problems then stopping any. Students tend to go with their first instinct and grab the gun, however most students