Tuesday, the NC State University Police Department issued a crime warning informing students and campus employees that an armed robbery took place near Nelson Hall in the Governors Scott Courtyard. Despite that armed robberies often happen near campus, on-campus armed robberies are still rare. What happened at midnight on Tuesday put campus safety issues on the table for debate again.
Not surprisingly, as a country that has the highest gun ownership in the world, many gun-friendly people would cite that the campus safety issues are largely due to gun-free environments at plenty of colleges and universities. Students and employees are not allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus.
Under the guidance of this spirit, several states have initiated the legislative process to allow individuals to carry concealed weapons on campus, according to the Washington Post. Utah, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Texas and Wisconsin have enacted laws admitting guns on campus. More than a dozen states including North Carolina have statutory prohibitions but with some exceptions. In North Carolina, for example, the General Assembly passed a bill allowing individuals to carry guns on campus but requiring that they store weapons in locked vehicles, provided that the gun owner has a concealed carry permit and the gun is no larger than a handgun.
The opening of a floodgate of gun policies in colleges does not come smoothly. At the beginning of this fall semester, students at University of Texas at Austin organized to protest the state’s new campus carry policy by distributing sex toys to students, according to U.S News & World Report. Despite no clear correlation between sex toys and gun laws, UT students did it because they wanted to “fight absurdity with absurdity” because UT Austin bans carrying sex toys on campus.
On the surface, these various campus carry policies in universities seem to give individuals the right to defend themselves using a weapon if necessary. However, many campus carry policies are discriminatory given the fact that they don’t take state gun laws into consideration. Take Texas for example, the state requires license holders to be at least 21 years old. This restriction on age has already excluded the majority of freshmen and sophomores on campus.
In addition, American universities have hosted millions of international students who come from more than 100 countries. These international students have not been exposed to an environment where guns are commonly present. It takes time for internationals to get used to it. Campuses are a relatively safe haven for them, if gun free, and allow them to smoothly transition into learning about the use of guns and gun laws.
In response to the Texas campus gun laws, more than 20 private colleges have opted out of the law, expressing concern of campus safety, according to NBCDFW news. These colleges have a relatively small number of students, many of whom are not old enough to get a license, which is why many of them choose not to allow guns.
To assess the effect of carry laws on campus safety, one should not only look at the criminal record before and after the law is in place, but also analyze individuals’ behaviors in case of emergencies involving guns. In a gun-friendly environment, both ordinary people and police officers face an identification issue that is not observable. People observe realized actions, not intentions.
If a man is seen carrying a gun, people cannot just assume that he intends to use the weapon maliciously. This unobserved component is the source of many people’s worry because human beings do not like uncertainty in general.
In colleges, students intend to focus on study and research, not being vigilant and cautious of potential shootings. The presence of guns on campus could increase the intensity and anxiety of students living in a relatively dense and compact residential area.
Gun rights are a unique aspect of the American tradition and an undeniable right, but they should not be abused and exaggerated.
Editor’s Note: According to Major David Kelly from the NC State University Police Department, the original text of this column was unclear on the nature of North Carolina’s firearm possession policy. According to Kelly, those wishing to have a gun in a locked vehicle must have a concealed carry permit and are limited to storing nothing larger than a handgun. Failure to comply will result in a charge of firearm possession. The final sentence of the 3rd paragraph of the original column has been altered to reflect this.
