Recent school shootings have gotten everyone’s attention, but campuses are not sure what to do about the issue. Some campuses are just tightening security while others are actually debating on allowing students to carry weapons to classes.
Schools such as Virginia Tech, University of North Carolina, and Auburn University are totally opposed to the idea of letting student have concealed weapons. This is logical to think because of the recent attacks on their campus, but could someone have stopped them from happening if they had a gun of their own?
In a recent article on the Virginia Tech shooting in the St. Petersburg Times, Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, said, “One can never say for sure that someone could have stopped the shooter, but we can say that if no one was armed, there was no way to stop him. We just don't know what would have happened."
Forty out of the fifty states allow adults to carry concealed weapons. To do this they must go through a very detailed application process and an extensive background check. Schools however can enforce their own rules. The only thing holding guns from being in classrooms is the administration; because since you’re on their private property they can make the rules stating what to do.
General Assembly Delegate Todd Gilbert has pushed for allowing students to carry guns on campuses. According to the Times article, “Gilbert introduced a bill that would have allowed students over 21 to carry guns on campus.” His bill got turned down just a few months before the 2007 attack on Tech. We will never know what would have happen if it would have passed. Gilbert and others are still pushing for the students’ ability to carry guns on campus to this day.
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