To carry or not to carry: that is the question

By: The Traveler Editorial Board

Posted: 4/11/08

Many arguments have been made regarding whether college students or faculty should be allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus. Upon looking at all of the evidence available, however, the Traveler editorial board has to side with the flower-power peace movement of the '60s.

Although we must take into consideration, as students and citizens, ways to protect ourselves in dangerous situations, the solution is certainly not carrying guns on campus.

College campuses are safe havens - or at least they used to be - where students can learn from others and express their opinions openly. They're simply not the place to be carrying weapons and constantly fearing for our lives.

Although we don't like it, we admit our world is changing and turning into a scary place where we can't even walk down the street without that small feeling of fear in the pits of our stomachs.

And carrying a gun on campus - or knowing that someone in your 300-student lecture classes has one - might help alleviate these fears for some people.

However, that same feeling of fear might return at the thought of someone you don't know carrying a gun and sitting behind you, next to you or even in front of you - teaching.

Do you really want to live in a society where fear dominates every aspect of your daily life and every decision you make? For example, let's say a guy is pursuing a girl, but she might not have the option to reject him anymore for fear of being shot. Or teachers might not have the option of giving bad grades because they fear their students could pull a weapon. These thoughts are too traumatizing to comprehend.

The side that argues that someone having a gun at Northern Illinois University or Virginia Tech University would have been able to stop the shooters before they managed to do so much damage seems like a valid point.

However, in Arkansas, only a small number of people have the permit to carry a concealed weapon, said Lt. Gary Crain, public information officer for the UA Police Department, according to today's front-page article in the Traveler.

Therefore, the likelihood that a person who does carry a gun on campus will be present when a crazy person enters a building and starts firing at everyone is very small. Anyway, how many people would have the guts to carry a gun and actually shoot another human being?

And what if that gun went off by accident? Could you live with the guilt of killing another human being "by accident"?

Yes, we know, people who have permits generally know how to use a gun, but accidents happen. People who drive supposedly have state licenses and know what they're doing; yet the No. 1 killer of young people is automobile accidents.

If we open campuses to guns, what's going to be next? What other tool will troubled students use to achieve their means? Bombs? AK-47s?

In January 1989, an attacker spray-fired a Stockton, Calif., schoolyard with more than 100 rounds from an AK-47 semi-automatic assault rifle, killing five children and wounding 29 more in minutes, according to the Brady Center for Gun Control.

Steven Kazmierczak, the NIU shooter, snuck a shotgun and three handguns onto campus in a guitar case and under a coat. Police recovered 48 bullet casings and six shotgun shells from the crime scene.

These are horrifying events, but the point is, carrying concealed weapons on campus probably will not prevent someone intent on causing mayhem from going about his business. Perhaps the gunmen at NIU or VT could've been stopped, but the chance seems slim that someone with a gun would've been at the right place at the right time.

Besides, obtaining a concealed-carry license doesn't guarantee a person is going to use it correctly. And for us - well, we'd rather not live in fear that someone with a gun could snap at any time and shoot someone.

We're on the UA campus to have new experiences, make new friends and above all, learn. Do we really want to spend our time at the university fretting over what people carry guns and how they plan to use them?

We understand we live in a sometimes-dangerous society that has evolved with time and has stretched to allow new ideas to come into play, but we just don't think America is ready for its young college students - the future - to be armed and ready to shoot.