Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Column: Concealed carry on campus needed for student safety
By Cole Shooter
Daily Toreador, Texas Tech
April 24, 2009

The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, except on university campuses in many states, including Texas.

Due to the "Gun Free" zones surrounding college campuses in the state, the government has removed the students, professors and staff's right to protect themselves in a place where they spend much of their time.

Some Texas legislators are attempting to fix this moronic geographical and legal barrier 23 other states have already abolished. In House Bill 1893's analysis, it elaborates that "the law authorizing a person to obtain a license to carry a concealed handgun in Texas has been in effect for over a dozen years, and statistics show that concealed handgun licensees have consistently demonstrated law-abiding and responsible behavior." However, not everyone agrees.

The editorial board of the Northern Star, Northern Illinois University's student newspaper, decided to throw its anti-gun rhetoric in on the legislation taking place in Texas. They said, "Legislators should be embarrassed at suggesting that more guns present on campus is the answer to violent crime ... Concealed Carry on Campus demonstrates the closed-minded ideals that preface violent crime."

They continue by saying they believe "students shouldn't have to feel like they have to take the law into their own hands. Our society implements police and other law-enforcement officers because civilians are not properly equipped with the knowledge to eradicate dangerous situations."

They're wrong, of course. Their arguments are fairly commonplace among the "big brother" crowd. Nobody's argument but their's is "closed minded," and statistics support the concealed carriers' cause. According to a 2006 report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, implemented concealed carry laws had wholly lower violent crime rates than states that did not have the measure. States with concealed carry laws saw murder rates decrease by 26 percent and robbery drop by 50 percent.

Police officers also have no legal obligation to protect the citizenry's lives as well, and can't be around to spot every crime. In the 1981 D.C. Court of Appeals ruling in Warren v. District of Columbia, the court ruled "official police personnel and the government employing them are not generally liable to victims of criminal acts for failure to provide adequate police protection ... a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any particular citizen."

Also, in 1982's Bowers v. Devito, the seventh circuit court of appeals also ruled citizens have no constitutional right to be protected by the state against being murdered.

While some officers may do their best to protect and serve, they're under no legal obligation to do so. Therefore, we're left in charge of our own protection. Even so, a police force intervening in a situation where one is randomly shooting would take time to arrive and handle the situation, whereas one law-abiding citizen with a concealed handgun could theoretically dispatch the aggressor rather quickly.

The argument against concealed carry on campus is just as flawed as the argument for blanket disarmament in general. While the law-abiding citizens wouldn't have their guns, criminals will, despite what the law says. In his 1764 treatise "On Crimes and Punishments", Cesare Beccaria said of gun control; "Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."

While HB 1893 is likely to pass in the state House, its companion bill for the Senate, Senate Bill 1164 is still in committee, and is likely to face a more difficult passage. State Senator Robert Duncan of Lubbock, the chair of the committee in which SB 1164 has been sent doesn't support the bill. Unfortunately, Senator Duncan is no conservative.

Duncan has tried for 16 years to wrest Texans' right to elect our judges, last Monday voted to adopt SB 1569, which accepts Obama's $555 million unemployment stimulus with plenty of strings attached, and now won't support university students and staff's right to protect ourselves while on campus.

It's time for university students and staff to no longer be forced to sit and wait to become victims. The law must allow us to take responsibility for our own safety because nobody else is obligated to.

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