In the wake of the recent college mass shootings, gun debates dance across the festering wounds of our country. So now, guns are threatening to encroach upon the boundaries of academia everywhere, strapped on the hip of students and teachers alike. Stressed out and sleep-deprived college students packing heat? Not the answer. Aggravated and underpaid kindergarten teachers toting guns? Not the answer.
As a country, guns are already allowed on public college campuses in Wisconsin, Texas, Utah, Oregon, Mississippi, Kansas, Idaho, Colorado and Arkansas. Fifteen state legislatures have introduced bills this year that would make it easier for college students to bring weapons to school.
Beginning in August 2016, Texan college students can bring concealed guns into classrooms. This includes the University of Texas at Austin, where in 1966 an engineering student killed his wife, mother and more than a dozen other people after he climbed the campus clock tower and opened fire—an event that many consider to be the beginning of a half-century of mass school shootings.
The concealed carry ruling, of course, has garnered a massive amount of criticism from both students and faculty, in particular with a movement by University of Texas students demarcated on social media by #CocksNotGlocks. In response to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signing the new campus-carry law, students are rallying others to openly carry dildos around in protest. Also known as “Campus (DILDO) Carry,” the protest has been subject to a firestorm of pro-gun, conceal-carry enthusiasts who don’t appreciate being mocked.
Group founder Jessica Jin described her reasoning on the Facebook group’s bio — while guns will soon be legal on Texas campuses, sex toys are not. Jin wrote, “You’re carrying a gun to class? Yeah, well I’m carrying a HUGE DILDO. Just about as effective at protecting us from sociopathic shooters, but much safer for recreational play.” Truthfully, it probably isn’t the best idea to give sexually repressed individuals guns.
The NRA fired back with a stance it has been hiding behind for years — “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” said Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president and CEO of the NRA.
What many seem to overlook is that “good guys” commit gun violence as well. This romanticized, “wild-west,” John Wayne shoot-out scene has been severely misjudged. Several of the same people who are advocating for college conceal-carry rights online are the same people who are using hostile and intolerant language, calling Jin a slut, among other slurs.
Hostility and intolerance are not characteristics of what the “good guys” with guns should have. I seem not to be the only one alarmed with concerns of these “good guys” carrying concealed weapons as an economics professor at UT at Austin just resigned because of concerns for his personal safety.
The North Carolina Legislature just passed a bill that would allow concealed weapons on college campuses, bars and restaurants where alcohol is served, playgrounds, hiking trails, recreational areas and public school campuses. This bill was opposed by all 17 of the police chiefs at University of North Carolina college campuses. Many student government associations oppose the bill, and several are making personal appeals to lawmakers. Appalachian State Student Body President Dylan Russell claimed that college has a tendency to be overwhelming and suggested that this does not necessarily mesh well with guns now being more accessible to college students. This bill is a big change from the current rule at NC State that states students are only allowed to have concealed weapons in closed containers inside of their cars on university-owned lots.
Good guys with guns commit gun violence all the time, whether accidentally, self-imposed, or in moments of rage or mental instability. People get mad, they get drunk, they get depressed, they get suicidal — the reality of gun violence is not good versus evil. We are human, we are chaotic, and we disagree every step of the way. It’s illogical to think that adding more guns to the mix will prevent gun violence.
Mass shootings, while random and terrifying, do not account for the majority of gun violence. Most of the 1.5 million Americans who have lost their lives to gun violence since 1968 have not been in a mass shooting. Arthur L. Kellerman’s 1998 study, “Injuries and deaths due to firearms at home,” cites that it is more likely for people to hurt themselves or someone else in an accident with their guns than to injure someone else who is intruding their home.
The New England Journal of Medicine reported that living in a home where guns are kept increased an individual’s risk of death by homicide between 40 and 170 percent. In fact, studies have shown that carrying a firearm significantly increases a person’s risk of being shot in an assault. By carrying a gun, people not only make people around them uncomfortable but also make themselves a volatile target. It follows similar logic, if you were concerned about the threat of being cut by a knife, would you further armor yourself by going and sitting in a room full of knives?
A 2013 study by the Violence Policy Center found that defensive gun use occurs about 98.5 percent less that the gun lobby has claimed in 2007-2013’s nationwide statistics.
Inexperience and alcohol lead college students to make a lot of dumb decisions. Most of these events result in little lasting harm and are counted as lessons learned, but if guns are added into the college mix, dumb choices might become a lot more deadly or violent.
Alternatively, it’d be safer to insist on more armed security guards, alternative defensive strategies, or more serious approaches to the dangers of poor mental health. Guns on campuses will only distract from the learning environment instead of doing much good, and it will be insufficient to put an end to tragic mass shootings — that is a problem with culture, not with an inadequate amount of guns.
