Campuses debate gun control issues
Tim Bella
Issue date: 11/30/07 Section: News
Lewis, an Austin resident, said critics may be misinformed as to what the group's objective might be in regard to who should have the right to carry a concealed firearm into a classroom.
"This is not a debate about keeping guns out of the hands of immature, substance-abusing college students," Lewis said. "This is a debate about allowing licensed individuals - age 21 and above, in most states - to carry their concealed firearms on college campuses, the same way they carry them virtually everywhere else."
Even though the discussion has become more lively as of late, university officials such as Chancellor Victor Boschini know the serious repercussions that could accompany such a movement.
"I would be opposed to their being allowed to do this in a group living environment," Boschini said. "My gut just tells me, from 20-plus years experience in a campus environment, that this is a recipe for disaster."
Abbie Spangler, the founder of Protest Easy Guns - a grassroots movement "focused on protesting lax U.S. gun laws, which provide criminals and dangerous individuals easy access to guns," she said - agreed with Boschini that the results would be dangerous if they were to be put in place.
Demonstrators with Spangler's group have organized lie-ins involving 32 people lying on the ground for several minutes - a symbolic protest remembering the 32 people killed in the Virginia Tech shootings and the amount of time it took for Seung Hui Cho to obtain his gun.
"Our protest movement believes that students should not have guns on college campuses," Spangler said. "That is completely ridiculous."
Despite the strong push on the part of Spangler and Protest Easy Guns, she said in a Nov. 1 Chronicle of Higher Education article that the level of enthusiasm for this movement was not on par with past influential movements on college campuses.
"Students just don't seem to be caught up in this issue the way they were in the civil rights movement," Spangler said in the article. "I don't know whether things will change because of these demonstrations and other things."
"This is not a debate about keeping guns out of the hands of immature, substance-abusing college students," Lewis said. "This is a debate about allowing licensed individuals - age 21 and above, in most states - to carry their concealed firearms on college campuses, the same way they carry them virtually everywhere else."
Even though the discussion has become more lively as of late, university officials such as Chancellor Victor Boschini know the serious repercussions that could accompany such a movement.
"I would be opposed to their being allowed to do this in a group living environment," Boschini said. "My gut just tells me, from 20-plus years experience in a campus environment, that this is a recipe for disaster."
Abbie Spangler, the founder of Protest Easy Guns - a grassroots movement "focused on protesting lax U.S. gun laws, which provide criminals and dangerous individuals easy access to guns," she said - agreed with Boschini that the results would be dangerous if they were to be put in place.
Demonstrators with Spangler's group have organized lie-ins involving 32 people lying on the ground for several minutes - a symbolic protest remembering the 32 people killed in the Virginia Tech shootings and the amount of time it took for Seung Hui Cho to obtain his gun.
"Our protest movement believes that students should not have guns on college campuses," Spangler said. "That is completely ridiculous."
Despite the strong push on the part of Spangler and Protest Easy Guns, she said in a Nov. 1 Chronicle of Higher Education article that the level of enthusiasm for this movement was not on par with past influential movements on college campuses.
"Students just don't seem to be caught up in this issue the way they were in the civil rights movement," Spangler said in the article. "I don't know whether things will change because of these demonstrations and other things."
Viewing Comments 1 - 8 of 8
TPaine
posted 11/30/07 @ 2:01 PM CST
Wyatt Tubb sums up the debate succinctly in the last paragraph.
"I have never thought about that" is at least an honest beginning.
Many well intentioned, decent people have never thought things through. (Continued…)
Stephen J. Feltoon
posted 11/30/07 @ 3:37 PM CST
To follow-up with TPaine, it's not even about the sheep mentality of "I don't know what I'd do". If someone doesn't want to own or carry a gun, we support them, but don't ruin it for the rest of us. (Continued…)
Jack Duncan
posted 11/30/07 @ 6:38 PM CST
I am still amazed that some people are so naive as to think putting up a "No Guns" sign will actually prevent someone from having a gun. Only the law abiding (which by definition are not the problem) will obey such nonsense. (Continued…)
Jonh Luvaro
posted 11/30/07 @ 7:40 PM CST
While the academic debate drags on, re gun carry on campus, I recommend this. Do what I did when I had to live in affordable housing; (read here, a marginal / dangerous neighborhood). (Continued…)
Glen
posted 12/01/07 @ 9:46 PM CST
You rock; exactly what I did; and I carry my gun everywhere I can that doesn't have a metal detector -"no carry" sign be damned. No one, no government (look at 9/11 and the unarmed pilots!), no school, and no corporation has the right to take away my right to defense of family and self. (Continued…)
W. Scott Lewis
posted 12/03/07 @ 10:17 AM CST
FYI, it's a third degree felony to carry a concealed handgun on the campus of a college or university in the state of Texas, so the worst case scenario is being expelled AND going to jail. (Continued…)
Ed Sizemore
posted 12/03/07 @ 5:06 PM CST
This is, in my opinion, a no-brainer. The right to self-protection is God-given, and it is acknowledged and recognized by the Second Amendment; the Constitution does give us that right. (Continued…)
Itsa Secret
posted 12/04/07 @ 3:52 PM CST
Not meaning to nit-pick here, but for accuracy's sake: BYU is a private school and so they have the right to ban guns from their campuses (and I believe their Honor Code contains some language to the effect that students will not bring firearms on campus or keep them in student housing). (Continued…)
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