Editorial: Conceal carry laws endanger students
Published April 10, 2009
Missouri legislators took a step toward making college campuses across the state more dangerous this week. The House gave preliminary approval for a bill that would lower the conceal carry age from 23 to 21, and would allow for conceal carry on college campuses across the state. The concealed carry portion of the bill was tacked on in an amendment -- likely so it would pass more easily -- and the passage of this bill through the House and the Senate would be an extreme disservice to the safety of students across the state. Turning universities into potential battlegrounds by deputizing the students is not an effective measure against campus violence. This bill has a much higher chance of putting lives in danger than actually saving them.
We couldn't imagine allowing people to carry and conceal weapons on campuses doing anything but harm, and we're not the only ones. MU Police Department Chief Jack Watring is against such a measure. The International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators is against the bill as well because of reckless conduct, homicides, suicides and injuries to campus officers that would result. The fact that legislators are putting people who will be required to take an eight hour class with two hours of practiced shooting on the same level as officers who undergo 24 hours of training annually is appalling. Putting students' safety at risk and ignoring the lack of support from the majority of people who are related to the issue is an egregious display of attempted vote gathering.
The arguments made in favor of this measure are inappropriate, shortsighted and little more than talking points. Citing a shooting in 2002 at the Appalachian School of Law in which two students were able to stop the shooter isn't actually citing any type of valid evidence. The two students who were able to take down the shooter had backgrounds in law enforcement, and one was an actual sheriff's deputy, as opposed to just having been made one by being allowed to carry a gun.
Some college campuses around the state don't even have armed police officers, and that legislators are willing to let civilians to carry guns on campuses shows that they don't understand the real issues facing college campuses today. To make campus safer, the state should instead be making provisions to provide support for more support and resources for mental health care.
This bill needs to be stopped, and we're hoping that the Senate can exercise some restraint by not focusing on gathering votes and actually looking to understand the issue more completely and recognize the safety hazard it represents.