Would Allowing Students to Carry Weapons Make College Campuses Safer?

The primary threat posed by the gun lobby’s campaign is to colleges and universities where students are old enough to be legally entitled to purchase or possess all manner of firearms. As everyone that has lived through adolescence and young-adulthood knows, the college age years – 18 to 24 – are among the most volatile periods in a person’s life. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has consistently found that criminal gun possession is highest for youths 18 to 24, with the ages 19-21 providing an even higher peak within this range. These also happen to be the peak years for persons to commit violent gun crimes, including homicides.

Also, no one should forget that Seung Hui Cho was a 23-year-old student who the Commonwealth of Virginia thought was a lawful firearms purchaser. Moreover, having missed the fact that he had been adjudicated mentally defective in December 2005, Virginia would have issued a CCW license to Cho had he applied. How many other individuals that have carried out school shootings were legally entitled to purchase or possess firearms at the time of the shootings? We are not aware of anyone having made a count, though a review of the school shootings indicates many of those shooters were so qualified. Thus, the policy solution advocated by the gun lobby to arm all students may well make it easier for those bent on carrying out destruction to bring guns onto campus.