Debate on Whether Students, Professors, and Other College Employees to Carry Weapons

With the growing number of on campus shooting, some states are opting whether or not to allow college instructors to carry concealed weapons to school. The gun free zone act of 1990 currently makes it illegal for anyone to carry a gun in a school zone, which is on a campus or within 1000 feet of a school. Supporter of the law proclaim the need for more security in campuses due to the increase in mass shooting all around the country. They argue that permitting weapons in school would increase the security in the campus. Senator Jack Happer argues that the more guns there are present in a campus, the safer it would become.

According to (lot) he argues that “gun free zone” invite mass shootings as number of casualties increase due to the fact that there are no armed people who can interrupt the rampant shooting. He claimed that mass shooters, knowing they will face far more resistance due to armed people would consciously stay away from such a place. A key argument in this favour is that arming students would protect the community against violent incidents. However if professors and students were to be allowed to carry concealed weapons it would create uncertainty to the police if a shoot-out was to happen because the police would not know who the perpetrator is which would increase injuries and deaths. Since most people would possess a weapon there might be confusion on who the shooter is and accidents might happen causing by standers to be injured or worse killed.

Objection to the motion

In a survey done by the Washington post it showed that the more available the more the deaths are. Young adults between the ages of 18 – 25 years’ experience the highest rate of serious mental illnesses. Due to hard life in campuses some students consider suicide. When the gun enters the mix it would it would result to more deaths because firearm suicides are considerably more lethal.

If the bill was to be passed it would burden colleges with large new cost for security and insurance. In buildings such as sports stadiums where gun are prohibited it would they would be need for security measures to prevent people from entering such buildings. This would need more security guards and equipment. Together with installation of gun safes and lockers the expenses would increase. In some cases there would be frequent accidental shootings since college aged people engage in reckless behaviours such as drinking, drug use, fighting, suicide which would increase the danger of possessing weapons. In cases where a student is being bullied it might be very danger because the student may decide to pull out the weapon which may cause things to escalate. It can also cause increase in cases of sexual assault in schools. This is because students may be threatened with a gun. Alcohol is involved in most sexual assault cases and since a student possesses a weapon it would lead to impaired judgement.

In a survey conducted in 2008 of university chiefs only five per cent supported the students carrying firearm in school. The rest agreed that the most effective and important way to deal with gun use is to prohibit their use at all.

Even with firearm training it would still be difficult to stop a mass shooting. Even when people are armed it would still be difficult to respond to a mass shooter. Some recreations have showed that if a person is placed in a live shooting he or she would not be able to stop the circumstances and would reduce the chances of that person’s survival.