Guns on College Campuses - Report Example

Guns on College Campuses Asha Kansal First Draft Research paper October 6, Outline: Should Guns Be Permitted on College Campuses 1. Introduction Background Gun Right Thesis: Although many people believes carrying a gun on college campuses is one way for protection, guns should be banned from this environment 2. Losing Concentration Afraid from the consequences 3. Violent Campus Increasing the number of crime on campuses Increasing the number of selling guns on campuses 4. The new generation will impact by violence Lack of self- confidence More aggressive in behavior More student feel threat 5. Lack of education will be one of the consequences Many of university facility would not be used Online course will be more use rather than on campus classes 6. Those with permit not always law-abiding Background checks not effective Offenders issued with concealed carry permit 7. Legally there is no training necessary Inexperienced people carry firearms Limited training, if any, offered 8. Conclusion Guns should not be allowed on campuses Guns lead to violence and drug abuse Students disregard campus education for online courses Abdullah Alsaheel Instructor Asha Kansal Research paper: First Draft October 6, 2014 Should Guns Be Permitted on College Campuses By the time that we have invented many technologies, we are fascinated and stuck on them. “Currently, nearly all public college and universities ban student possession of concealed weapon on campus through state laws, university regulation or both. In approximately 26 states, state law prohibits guns on public college campuses, even for people that have obtain concealed weapons licenses, with the exception of university public safety officers. Only one state institution from barring guns on campus” (Harnisch). Nowadays, almost all college and university regulations prohibit carrying a gun in their premises. This is even for people licensed to carry firearms except the university security guards for safety reasons. The Federal Gun Free Schools zone is a federal law that makes it illegal for citizens to bear firearms in school zones. There are some assumptions as to why people carry a gun. People with guns think they are Rambo. One has to be paranoid to carry a gun as it will be the Wild West all over again. Only the government can be trusted with guns and its agencies such as the police for protecting the citizens (Chastain). These school zones are free for the public just like parks, sidewalks, roads, and highways and thus are more vulnerable when people are allowed to carry guns unlike private school in our community (Wyoming). Although many people believe carrying a gun on college campuses is one way for protection, guns should be banned from campus environment. First, guns permitted on campuses lead to loss of concentration. It is important that students and faculty feel safe on campuses in order to improve on learning. Also, it is definite that many students and faculty would feel uncomfortable wondering whether their professors and/or students have handguns with them if guns are allowed on campuses in the United States (SGFS). I remember a story that happened when I was in university studying for my undergraduate. There were some students in possession of a gun on campus and were using it for showoff. They wanted to show how much power they have, and may be for some other hidden reasons. So, somehow one of the students found the gun on the floor close to someone’s disk and he immediately turned it to the security guard who gave it to the dean of student affairs to deal with the situation. Consequently, based on this strange phenomenon the police investigated all the students. The university classes were halted for a week leading to more than half of the students failing in their classes. After the investigations, all the student were afraid of what was going to happen and many families stopped their children from going to the university until this story ended. This was because there is nothing more valuable than a child. After that investigation and Strict control for long time on university campus many students were found to be involved in this problem. The used a strict policy on the students to lead them to main source or who had the control of the student to do his job. Second, permitted guns not only lead to loss of concentration, but also to violent on campus. Drug use, alcohol abuse, stress and social obstacles are the biggest challenges affecting college life. When mixed with weapons, they could have dangerous consequences for anyone in the campus community (Harnisch). There is increasing number of student using drugs especially when it is related to their studies. Many of the students believe that using drugs will enhance their ability to study or help in relaxing after their exams but end up becoming addicted to it. However, the most significant issue most of students do not figure out is that this habit will affect their critically thinking and will damage some parts of their brain. This leads them to bad dramatic situations like suicide or killing each other if they have weapons with them. Most of universities in the United States offer their students awareness lessons about the danger of firearms and how they lead to suicide. Furthermore, it will be a huge black market of selling guns on the campuses. Many gangs will use university campuses to illegally sell their guns for different purposed by doing their deals there under the allowing concealed weapon umbrella. If we can see carefully the big picture we can realize there is a big business going on. There will be cold blood murders and police will be distracted on the campus preventing arrests since it is easy to escape. The important question is how many victims will be there, for example, a university with 3000 students and faculty and the number of mistaken shooting is 1% in a bad situation, and this means there will be 30 people dead. Third, the new generation is heavily affected by violence from video games and TV. These programs have many negative effects on the youth’s behaviors. Allowing concealed handguns on campus has much more influence on student’s behavior as well. Lack of self confidence, aggressiveness, and threat to life are some of psychological problems. When people grow up with rigid principles in the community where they live and seeing many crimes in front of them will bring many questions in their minds. They will wonder what is the right and wrong thing, whether it is okay to carry a gun during classes because many students will lose confidence. They will feel uncomfortable from the many actions that have happened in front of them. “May 19, 2007—Jason Hamilton shoots and kills his wife at home and then tracks a sheriff’s department at Latah County Courthouse and a church in Moscow, Idaho. Hamilton kills a total of three people, including a police officer, before taking his own life. He is armed with an AK-47 assault rifle and an M1 carbine despite a long history of domestic violence, mental illness, and run-ins with the police. Local resident and University of Idaho student Peter Hussmann, 20, races to the courthouse on his bike armed with a 45 caliber handgun and are shot four times by Hamilton. “It was like a war zone,” says Hussmann. Two other law enforcement officers are wounded” (SGFS). These scenarios show that mental illness with history of domestic violence is contributing factors. All of these are related to each other same as what was discussed earlier. The guy with a gun and has psychological problems and a history form some causes explaining what was done. On the same way carrying guns leads the youths to be more aggressive with their community based on how they grew up and how much of problems they have faced like murders. Lack of education will be one of the consequences of allowing guns on campuses. Learning institutions are considered to be safe places because there is security provided. There is, therefore, no need for students to carry guns with them to college. When carrying guns on campuses becomes prevalent, the campus turns into a hostile environment where deliberate or accidental shootings may occur. Owing to this fear, students feel the urge to shift colleges or do away with college for some time. This affects learning and the education goals of these students. As indicated earlier, parents will not hesitate to remove their children from such campuses for fear that their lives would be in danger. This is even made worse by the common shooting in learning institutions across the United States which leave dozens wounded and others dead. With such cases being this common, it is only natural for a student or parent to try and avoid such an ordeal indicates Ojalvo. It is also important to note that majority of those who participate in school shootings are suicidal and thus would find a campus where students and staff carry guns as a better target. They would feel opening a shootout as a more thrilling experience thereby leading to more casualties. This can be supported by the fact that in May, 8 2006 a guy called Kennedy ambushed a police station in Fairfax County. He managed to fatally gun down two armed officers and had fired more than seventy rounds before he was killed. Another case is where one Hamilton went on a rampage in May 19, 2007 starting by killing his wife and later a police officer in Latah County (SGFS). These incidents, among others, show that these suicidal shooters will find a campus loaded with guns as a hotspot for a rampage. The fear of such incidents will ultimately make the community fear taking their children to institutions of higher learning thereby hampering the delivery of education. As a result, the campuses will receive fewer students who will be willing to tolerate such a risky environment. Many more will opt to do away with institutional campuses altogether and study online (NCSL 2014). With the increased access to education through the internet, many are finding it not only safer but also cheaper and more convenient to receive their educational accolades through online learning. One is able now to learn through online means in any university of their choosing as long as they pass their admission tests. This trend emanating from unsafe campuses will render university facilities redundant and obsolete. These facilities cost the tax payers millions of dollars to construct and for them to go to waste just because of allowing guns on the campuses is not a very wise option. There will also be accompanied increased loss of jobs to majority of those who work in these campuses. There will be no need for many administration and teaching staff as well as subordinate staff. Some campuses may eventually close down altogether owing to the lack of students or because of underutilizing the available facilities. Those who have the permit to carry a concealed gun or weapon are not always law-abiding people. There is a constant lobbying by those who advocate for gun permits that those awarded the permits are good citizens. This assumption is quite general and untrue. This is even made worse by the fact that some states like Alaska do not necessitate one to hold a permit for them to possess a fire arm. In addition, thirty eight states do not necessarily and expressly require an officer issuing a permit to deny an applicant the permit of they only pass a few tests. Those states that require backgrounds checks also only disqualify people with felony convictions as well as a history of domestic abuse. This creates a serious loophole where those with other types of violent convictions can and are allowed to possess fire arms. The instant background check system is also quite deficient in terms offering all the relevant information that would otherwise disqualify a person. For example, 90% of mental health records are not captured by the system during the instant background check which is a very risky revelation according to (SGFS). This is made worse by the fact that only a quarter of the felony convictions have been submitted to the system meaning that a good number of those permitted to possess fire arms may harbor serious mental problems or have had misdemeanor convictions before. These statistics and facts clearly indicate that not everyone with the concealed carry permit is qualified to carry the weapon. This is compounded by the fact that people like Williams Latina, Gang Lu and Flores Robert had passed or would have qualified a background check and shortly afterwards went on a shooting spree. Another example was in 2007 in Florida where more than 1400 people had already been given concealed carry permit despite having pleaded guilty to felony charges. Trying now to imagine such people carrying these weapons on campuses and the harm they can potentially cause only goes to prove why carrying guns on campuses should be utterly prohibited. Legally there is no training necessary for those who hold or apply for the concealed carry weapon. Almost all states that allow citizens to carry guns do not require them to have any prior law enforcement training. The training required or mandated, where applicable, only requires one to have a one-day training on handling and discharging the firearm and simple regulations. Virginia, for example, only offers a few hours training in a classroom environment and that is considered enough to certify one to possess a firearm. This is in complete contrast to the kind of extensive training accorded to law enforcement officers and subsequent training while on duty and regular refresher courses where necessary. Despite all this training, a regular law enforcement office will hit their target at an average success rate of twenty percent says Ojalvo. This then begs the question, “how will an untrained holder of a firearm in a usually crowded campus situation successfully aim at a target?” This shows that in such a situation, the collateral damage will be immense. In a normal circumstance, shootings cause panic and people scatter and run towards every exit or direction. The inevitable misfiring and missing of target will thereby leave many in the line of fire and thus risk of death. This scenario will be aggravated if there are many guns within the campus since others will retaliate by opening fire creating a shootout scenario. There will then be numerous untrained people shooting randomly at moving targets (NCSL 2014). Such a scenario would be worse than a battlefield in a real-life situation. Responding law enforcement officers will also face immense challenges in differentiating between the innocent shooters and those who started it. SGFS states that the other fact confirms that despite having over 200 million licensed firearms in the United States, only minimal cases have been reported of ordinary citizens successfully shooting a bugler or a criminal. CONCLUSION The above analysis best shows that although many people believes carrying a gun on college campuses is one way for protection, guns should be banned from campus environment. It is clear that leaving campuses at the mercy of gun holders is only going to work against the community and the education. Guns have been seen to go hand in hand with violence and drug abuse. There will also be increased illegal sales of firearms involving students and outsiders making campuses very viable illegal markets. Students will also exhibit more aggressive mannerisms in campuses as many think they are Rambos if in possession of a firearm thereby threatening other students’ lives. Campuses may find themselves closing down since many parents and students will opt for online learning rather than the classroom experience. Works Cited Chastain, Russ “Why Carry a gun?” Retrieved 4 Oct. 2014 http://www.alloutdoor.com/2013/07/16/carry-gun/ Harnisch, Thomas “Concealed weapons on State College campuses: In Pursuit of Individual Liberty and Collective Security” A higher Education Policy Brief, November 2008. Retrieved 4 Oct. 2014 http://www.aascu.org/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=4545 National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) March 7, 2014 “Guns on Campus: Overview.” Retrieved 11 Oct. 2014 http://www.ncsl.org/research/education/guns-on-campus-overview.aspx Ojalvo Holly, E. March 3, 2011 “Should guns be permitted on college campuses?” Retrieved 11 Oct. 2014 http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/should-guns-be-permitted-on-college-campuses/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0 Students for Gun Free Schools (SGFS) “Why our campuses are safer without concealed handguns” Retrieved 4 Oct. 2014 http://www.studentsforgunfreeschools.org/SGFSWhyOurCampuses-Electronic.pdf Wyoming, Thayne. ATF letter regarding Fed GFSZA and Oklahoma weapons license holders “Federal Gun Free School Zone Act” July 25, 2013 http://www.ok2a.org/fedgfsza Read More