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As much as I like to exercise my rights as provided by Second Amendment, I cannot stress how poor of a decision it would be to allow students to carry firearms on campus for self-defense reasons.
A few weeks ago, I wrote a column referring to a new Indiana law that made it illegal for local law enforcement agencies to confiscate legally-owned firearms from law-abiding citizens during a declared state of emergency. The law also prevented employers from taking disciplinary action against employees for keeping firearms in their vehicles on company property.
A comment was posted to my article stating that the next step to recognizing our Second Amendment rights would be to allow students to carry concealed firearms on campus with the proper paperwork.
I'm not sure if this comment was meant to be serious or sarcastic, but allowing such a thing would be a bad idea.
Gun violence is a frequently studied issue, but the use of firearms in self-defense is often overestimated, according to David McDowall, the author of a study that assessed the use of firearms in self-defense from 1987 to 1990. In that study, McDowall reported that there were 258,460
incidents of firearm defense in the United States in that time frame. That's 0.18 percent of all crimes recorded by the survey and 0.83 percent of violent offenses.
Indiana state law allows residents to carry handguns on public property, openly or concealed, so long as that person also has a valid Indiana handgun permit or concealed- carry license. Though Ball State is a state-run institution, firearms and other weapons are prohibited on campus. And for good reason, Director of Public Safety
Gene Burton said.
"To allow concealed carry on campus is going to bring it into many more situations where it could be volatile and very dangerous, and I'm talking about in the residence halls," Burton said.
Burton said the introduction of firearms into residence halls, in combination with alcohol, may create an unnecessary danger for residents. Putting students in a position as first-responders to a crime on
campus would hinder the efforts of law enforcement officers responding, whether it was an isolated mugging or a campus shooting, he said.
"When there is an active shooter situation, officers are trained to go in, locate, identify and neutralize the threat as quickly as possible," Burton said. "If you add guns from civilians into that, now you're giving officers another thing to look at and look out for.
"If I go in there and there are two people with guns pointed at each other
and they're both firing at each other, to me the threat is both of those people," he added. "I don't know what the circumstances are, but I know what the threat is. I have to neutralize the threat, and at that point the threat is both of them."
University Police reported three cases of aggravated assault from 2006 to 2008. Three cases of robbery were reported in the same time frame, as well as 18 cases of rape.
Crime on a college campus can't be dismissed. Neither can the safety of the students when police aren't around to help. So, what are alternatives to carrying a firearm, besides staying locked indoors paranoid about
the dangerous world outside?
Sophomore Katie Lozier suggests self-defense courses, for one.
"Practical self-defense classes are a better idea than concealed weapons," she said, "Because self-defense can't be taken and turned against you. If someone wanted to hurt me, they could very easily take that weapon away from me and use it against me because I'm not exactly
the strongest person ever."
Another alternative to carrying a firearm for self-defense on campus is to not put yourself in a situation where you might need it.
Avoid walking alone at night or in unlit areas. Walk with friends, call Charlie's Charter or carry a can of pepper spray.
Students have kept safe without firearms on campus for this long.
Weapons are not a cure-all.
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