Carry On Campus

Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, an organization that advocates students should be allowed to carry weapons at colleges, is currently celebrating “empty holster” week.

Some students will wear empty holsters to school this week as “an act of silent protest against laws and policies banning licensed concealed carry on campus,” according to the organization’s website. So it goes at college these days.

It’s difficult to surmise how many Oklahoma students are participating in the event, but the state does have a chapter of the organization, with campus leaders at 12 Oklahoma colleges The organization has more than 44,000 friends on its Facebook page.

Ostensibly, the group’s main argument is simply this: People should be allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus so they can respond in a shooting or other violent episode at their schools. The organization was formed after tragic 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, which left 32 people dead.

Certainly, the specter of campus violence is always disturbing, and colleges have and will continue to implement safety measures and protocols, but allowing guns on campus could make schools more dangerous.

College presidents and law enforcement officials in the state have opposed the idea, arguing most people are not trained to respond with a weapon in an emergency situation.

What about over-zealous students who might erroneously respond to some situations? What about emotionally distraught students who have immediate access to weapons in classrooms and might act out compulsively? What about gun accidents? The potential for violence could increase, not lessen, if guns are allowed on campus.

Let’s hope the holsters remain empty when it comes to college campuses.

State Rep. Jason Murphey, a Guthrie Republican, has introduced a bill this upcoming legislative session that would allow students and faculty to carry concealed weapons in Oklahoma’s college classrooms.

A similar measure, dubbed “Carry on Campus,” didn’t make it into law last year. Let’s hope the bill fails to pass this year as well. It's unnecessary. It could actually lead to violence rather than prevent it.

Under proposed HB 1083, anyone who holds a concealed handgun permit and completes certification training given by the Council on Law Enforcement and Training (CLEET) would be allowed to carry concealed weapons at public colleges. The new bill appears to exempt faculty from the CLEET training requirement.

Here is the language from the bill’s most critical section:

E. In addition to the provisions of subsection D of this section, any person who possesses a valid concealed handgun license issued pursuant to the provisions of the Oklahoma Self-Defense Act and who:

1. Is certified by the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training to carry a weapon; or

2. Is a member of faculty who is primarily charged with classroom teaching responsibilities, shall be authorized to carry the concealed handgun into or upon any public college or university property.

Murphey, pictured right, and others have argued such a law would make public colleges safer here in light of the recent shooting tragedies at Northern Illinois University and Virginia Tech. Essentially, students and faculty could stop a shooter with their own weapons, according to those who advocate guns on campus.

Murphey’s bill reflects efforts on the state level throughout the nation to allow students and faculty to carry guns on campus. A student organization, Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, now lobbies in favor of the issue. The National Rifle Association supports carry on campus measures.

The Oklahoma Rifle Association gave Murphey its 2008 Legislator of the Year award for “his continued support of the 2nd Amendment and the right to keep and bear arms.”

Most of the state’s higher education administration officials opposed the bill last year and will probably do so again.

Students and faculty, with some exceptions, are not trained to respond to emergency shooting situations and could overreact or make a deadly situation worse. Bringing guns into classrooms would only increase the potential for violence. What about armed students who are distraught? What about accidental shootings? Some professors might not come to Oklahoma to teach if the law was passed.

These carry-on-campus bills are pushed by the country’s fanatical Second Amendment lobby, which advocates putting more and more weapons on the street. The ultimate goal for this lobby is to pass laws allowing most people to openly carry weapons virtually anywhere they go.

Here is the proposed bill. What do you think? Vote on a poll about the issue. Feel free to leave a comment.