Do College Students Need Guns In Campus To Feel Safe (Essay Sample)

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31st October, 2017
Introduction
Do students in college campuses need guns in campus for them to feel safe? Some people do not think so and they argue against carrying of guns in campuses for safety purposes. While opponents may think that students and staff ought to be discouraged from carrying guns as this may cause fear and could be an invitation to wreak death and destruction for innocent students, other people want the students to carry guns for their own protection in case of an attack, While banning guns may not prevent any chance of a mass shooting and carrying guns may be helpful for protection in case of an attack, there ought to be certain enforced rules for behavior for the gun holders.
The proposal to have students and staff carry guns in campus should be followed by strict requirements for people to obtain a firearm with proper background checks. Encouraging carrying of guns in campuses is backed by the fact that banning guns will not prevent any chance of mass shooting. The Second Amendment of the Constitution also gives an explicit right to bear arms for self-protection stating that "A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." (The Second Amendment). Denying students and staff from carrying guns to campus will also make them an easy target for attacks as according to the NRA, gun free zones are actually targets for criminals who Barnett argues that they pick defenseless targets where they know no one will have a gun.
The opposition to the proposal of allowing carrying of guns in campuses has several points of concern, which boil down to a sense of public safety. For instance, carrying guns will make most students and faculty feel more threatened as the weapons decrease the sense of campus safety (Patten, Thomas, Wada & Crim, 2013) as well as being an invitation to wreak death and destruction for innocent students. While citing Jesus Villahermosa, a Washington state SWAT officer and founder of crisis reality training, Dickerson in his article “Students Should Not Be Allowed to Carry Guns on College Campuses” states that students should not be allowed to carry guns as there is no credible evidence that this would reduce crime and that the brains of most students have not matured enough to be able to control their impulses and judgement and thus allowing students to carry guns could increase reckless shooting incidences. Dickerson states that concealed carry laws have the potential to dramatically increase violence on college and university campuses.
Conclusion
While those opposed to the carrying of guns in campuses cite safety as their main concern, those in favor are equally worried about their own safety. With students citing being uncomfortable with the presence of guns in campus, changing gun policies may not increase students’ feelings of safety on campus according to Cavanaugh in his “Students Attitudes toward Concealed Handguns on Campus at Universities” study. However, as unsafe as guns may be, it is not logical to completely ban them from the public. If the students and staff are law-abiding and meet all the safety requirements, the benefits of carrying the guns would far outweigh the potential risks, especially if strict laws are put in place to monitor the behavior of the gun owners. If the students and staff are law-abiding and meet all the safety requirements, the benefits of carrying the guns would far outweigh the potential risks, especially if strict laws are put in place to monitor the behavior of the gun owners. These strict laws would decide th...