There is a chance that allowing them to carry concealed weapons on college campuses will increase the violence. It would make it a lot tougher for campus law enforcement to do their job effectively. Teachers and students should not be allowed to carry concealed weapons on college campuses because it will create a more chaotic environment, they are not adequately trained to use them, and it takes the focus off of education. Allowing teachers and students to carry concealed weapons will not make college campus safer.
It will make them more chaotic during a crisis because instead of one person carrying a gun you will have several. Some questions that need to be considered are: How would a 19 year old college student react with an active shooter? Would they be able to handle the threat? How many more people would get hurt because you have people shooting from all different directions? As result of this, there would be mass confusion on campus, and Rich 2 responding law enforcement would then have more than one threat to deal with.
According to Thompson et al. , “Research has found that higher rates of firearm possession and ownership are associated with more acts of violence and higher rates of homicide and suicide” (248).
The Research paper on Legalizing Concealed Weapons
Many times people confuse whether or not allowing gun laws actually reduces the crime rate. As gun rights is a natural born right of citizens, some believe that should be banned, and many others believe that the law should be extended to lawful citizens. Based on my own experiences there have been several instances where I wish a legalized weapon was in arms reach. There was an instance about 7 ...
Possessing firearms is a right to Americans under the second amendment and should not be infringed, but allowing maturing adults to carry them on a college campus is absurd. A college campus is supposed to be a learning environment and what could happen when you mix an immature student carrying a concealed weapon with alcohol or drugs could be deadly.
According to Students for Gun Free Schools, “students who have a firearm at college are more likely to binge drink, drive a motor vehicle after binge drinking, use illegal drugs, vandalize property, and get into trouble with the police” (“Why Our Campuses Are Safer Without Concealed Handguns” 2).
Proper training is a must when it comes to handling firearms. You can have hours of training and still not master it. On college campuses where anyone is allowed to carry a concealed weapon, one would need to make sure that everyone receives rigorous training (Hanford 3).
Some people can have all the training needed and still react differently when a situation occurs. If a student or teacher had a concealed weapon during an active shooter incident, they might be unable to stop the threat or hurt other students trying to stop the threat. Some people forget their training when they feel pressure or stress. Police Officers receive hours of training and are required to qualify with their firearms quarterly to continue to carry them and have arrest powers.
In Texas, Teachers in some school districts can carry guns but they first must go through training on crisis management and hostage situations (“Texas: Teachers Can Rich 3 Carry Guns”15).
Training is a good thing but it will interfere with the already busy schedule of students and teachers. A student’s main focus should be attending college to further their education, not worry about people carrying handguns. It might be hard for someone to feel safe on a college campus when there are multiple people carrying firearms.
Ultimately this could affect how a student’s stress level would rise and hurt their grades. A classroom is supposed to be a stress free learning environment. According to Barbara Burrell, a professor at Northern Illinois University, “Students are under much pressure to achieve. We should make the learning environment a welcome and safe place, not a place of fear or where – in a moment of frustration – the way to solve a problem is to shoot someone” (“Your Views: Concealed Guns on Campus? ” B1).
The Term Paper on Why Students Fail In College
The society of the twentieth-first century has put an extremely high demand on attending and graduating college. Some basic employment opportunities today require a college degree, where close to ten to fifteen years ago, the only requirement was a high school diploma and acceptable ability to perform the specific task. However, the twentieth-first century college experience has become a challenge ...
Classroom attendance may drop because students would not come to class out f fear. Stephen Motley, a student at Central Florida, said “the idea of having guns on campus worries him. He said if he walked into a classroom and there was a gun on a teacher’s belt, he would be scared” (McLoed).
There are other alternatives to making college campuses safer. Most college campuses have police departments. Those departments need the budget, equipment, and manpower to operate properly. The money spent on training teachers and students on proper firearms training could be put toward the police departments.
