I myself don’t believe it’s wise at all to allow weapons to a high concentration of slightly overaged teenagers, who are far too much all about drunkenness and exhibit many of society’s increasing ills of selfishness and pettiness and general idiocy. It’s a critical mass that all too well may demonstrate higher annual death rate than even this 1-time (and rare) massacre.
I do think the adults working on campus should be allowed to carry.
However, if campi want to allow all to carry, fine. I have no big things against it. I just don’t think it’s wise and time would tell. If I’m wrong, so be it.
Well, we just got a real object lesson in the wisdom of a campus not allowing weapons.
While you seem to think college drunkeness and idiocy is a bad thing, I happen to remember that time of my life very fondly :~)
You bring up a good point though, not that no kid can be trusted, but that the general security and lifestyle in dorm rooms would make safe storage and keeping of guns difficult. When I was in the dorms, dorm rooms were left standing wide open on Friday nights, students mingled and partied room to room... and had I owned a weapon, it's safe storage would have been a major problem.
And, not to be understated, most kids living on campus are under 21. This guy was an exception. I'd be curious how other state laws compare, but in my state, while it's legal for an 18 year old to own rifles and shotguns, they cannot own handguns or carry concealed weapons until they are 21. That's state law, not campus policy. When I turned 21 I was still in college, and I was given a handgun by my father, but I lived off campus by then. I'm proud to say I kept my weapon safe while in college, even during parties, none of my friends knew where it was kept, and it was never loaded if there was alcohol being poured. I was raised and trained to have very safe gun habits... and the presence of the gun does tend to mature most people, but not all. I remember college also as being the place I first wished I could be in charge of deciding ~who~ could be trusted with a loaded gun.
Just food for thought. There are students around and on campus who own weapons, but even if they could carry on campus, there's more reasons not to, than there are to carry. There's practical considerations for one, the same considerations that make it impractical for most of us to carry concealed at work. First, most kids don't wear clothing all the time that is layered and conducive to carrying concealed. Hard to carry concealed in shorts and a t-shirt, especially for women. And if you carry the weapon in a bag or purse, it becomes a safe storage liability if you set it down. When I chose to carry at work, the gun became a source of worry and hassle when I needed to move around the office more than it was a source of security, and I stopped carrying it very often for that reason. Guns in class would have the same practical issues.
As someone who has thought through the practicalities of carrying in a classroom and campus situation, it's not as easy as it sounds.