SplAtteR

There is danger all around us, everyday, everywhere.  Why should we expect someone else to protect us?  Shouldn’t we, the students, the teachers, the staff, be allowed to protect ourselves?  After all, this is our life, our one life that we have.  I don’t know what you think, but I know that when I go to college I want to be able to protect myself.  I want the right to carry a concealed weapon on a college campus. 

It is commonly believed that allowing concealed weapons on campus would lead to an increase in violence.  Why is this so?  Let’s take a look at the public college campuses of Utah and see if we can counteract this belief.  In Utah, there are nine public college campuses located all over the state.  Since these schools have allowed concealed weapons on campus, there have been no “incidents of gun violence (including suicides),” there have been no “single gun accident[s],” and there have been no “single gun theft[s]” (Concealed Campus).  These are prime examples of allowing concealed weapons on campuses and the violence NOT increasing.  There are many civilians that carry concealed weapons all the time.  This act has not lead to an increase in violence, so neither should concealed weapons on campus.  According to the Chicago Journal, if the “states without a right-to-carry” had allowed concealed weapons in 1992, “1,500 murders would have been avoided yearly…, rapes would have declined by over 4,000, robbery by over 11,000, and aggravated assault by over 60,000″ (Chicago Journal).  These big numbers represent cruel crimes, cruel crimes which could have been prevented by the simple act of using a concealed weapon.  These crimes may not have taken place on a college campus, maybe they were in a small town, a city, or a village, but after all, isn’t a college campus a little community of its own.  Couldn’t the same crimes prevented in society by concealed weapons also be prevented on a college campus. 

I am just a few years away from college.  When I get there, I don’t want to have to worry about who is going to protect me.  College security is the answer to this right, but can I always depend on them?  There is however a simple solution to this problem; allowing college students to carry concealed weapons.  If it is legal in public, then it should be legal on campus.  The right to protect myself; this is the right I am fighting to have.