Debate Nirvana

Since the fall semester of 2006, Utah state law has allowed licensed individuals to carry concealed handguns on the campuses of Utah’s nine degree-offering public colleges (20 campuses) and one public technical college (10 campuses). Concealed carry has been allowed on the two campuses of Colorado State University (Fort Collins, CO, and Pueblo, CO) since 2003 and at Blue Ridge Community College (Weyers Cave, VA) since 1995. After allowing concealed carry on campus for an average of over five and a half years (as of January 2011), none of these 12 colleges (33 campuses) has seen a single resulting incident of gun violence (including threats and suicides) or a single resulting gun accident.

At the start of the 2010 fall semester, 14 Colorado community colleges (38 campuses) began allowing licensed concealed carry on campus, raising the total to 26 U.S. colleges (71 campuses) that allow campus carry. None has seen a single resulting problem.

“Likewise, none of the 40 ‘right-to-carry’ states has seen a resulting increase in gun violence since legalizing concealed carry, despite the fact that licensed citizens in those states regularly carry concealed handguns in places like office buildings, movie theaters, grocery stores, shopping malls, restaurants, churches, banks, etc. In fact, every peer-reviewed study on the subject, including studies by the National Academy of Sciences and the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, has concluded that there is no evidence that licensed concealed carry leads to an increase in either violent crime or gun deaths.

Based on 2002-2006 statistics from the Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas concealed handgun license holders are five and a half times less likely than members of Texas’s general population to commit manslaughter and four times less likely to commit murder. A Texan is 20 times more likely to be struck by lightning than to be murdered or negligently killed by a concealed handgun license holder.

The rate of concealed carry in Texas is about 1.8% (as of December 31, 2010). Approximately one Texan out of every 55 is licensed to carry a concealed handgun.

According to a U.S. Secret Service study* into 37 school shootings, ‘Over 25 of the attacks were resolved or ended before law enforcement responded to the scene. In these cases the attacker was stopped by faculty or fellow students, decided to stop shooting on his own, or killed himself.’ The study found that only THREE of the 37 school shootings researched involved shots being fired by law enforcement officers."

According to a Houston Chronicles statistic, a whopping 85% of Texan college students felt safer when the campus carry bill was just passed. Three years after the bill passed, nearly 99% of the student population felt safer.

In nearly all the Texan colleges that permits campus carry, the murder rate fell 50% faster than the national average in the year after Texas’s campus carry law passed. The rape rate fell 93% faster in the first year after enactment and 500% faster in the second year. The overall assault rate fell 250% faster in the second year.

Expecting a sign that says “Gun Free Zone” to effectively work and deter criminals is sadly a deadly fiction. In the Virginia Tech Case, 32 were killed, and 15 wounded. There were metal detectors at the entrance, and there were campus police nearby. However, the killer was still able to kill these innocent college students. In addition, in Northern Illinois University, 6 were killed, and 16 were wounded. That university too had campus police and metal detectors. The time has come to admit that current security measures in universities are clearly ineffective in preventing such drastic, terrible events.

According to a 2008 study by John Lott, PhD, the campus carry law has reduced homicides by 8.5%, reduced assaults by 7%, rapes by 5%, and robberies by 3%. Lott argued that if states had permitted the campus carry bill in 2000, 1,570 murders, 4,177 rapes, 60,000 aggravated assaults, and 12,000 robberies would have been prevented between 2000 and 2008 on college campuses nationwide.

According to study by the National Institute of Justice- conducted by criminal sociology professors Wright and Rossi- polled felony prisoners in eleven prisons in ten states, and found direct evidence that having guns on campuses or at home increases the chance to deter criminals. 
- 34% of the felons reported personally having been scared off, shot at, wounded or captured by an armed victim
- 69% reported that the experience had happened to another criminal whom they knew personally.
- 40% had personally decided not to commit a crime because they thought the victim might have a gun.
- 56% said that a criminal would not attack a potential victim who was known to be armed.
- 74% agreed with the statement that ―One reason burglars avoid houses where people are at home is that they fear being in a house with a gun in it

Look to the 2nd Amendment, which allows for, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." Look to Supreme Court cases that have declared having a gun on campus as a legal right. 

"The individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation is absolutely constitutional,” stated Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyers. In 2008 the Supreme Court ruled that individuals have the right to possess firearms for personal protection under District of Columbia V. Heller. Colorado State Court nearly had a unanimous decision when making the final decision on the campus carry bill. They had a 8 to 1 vote in favor of the campus carry bill, stating that it is a fundamental American right to possess a handgun legally for self-defense. 

Because the courts have consistently declared that having handguns is a private right granted by the 2nd Amendment, there is a direct legal precedent for enacting this law. It does not violate any laws, and it grants citizens the right that is given to them by the Constitution... LIFE.