On Guns on Campuses

Despite what may seem to be some seriously liberal ideas about the environment, the poor, and education, I must admit to being mostly okay with gun ownership. I don't own a gun and honestly have no desire to own one, but I'm okay that other people (like my brothers) own guns and know how to use them. Bully for them.

I have some serious objections, however, to allowing concealed weapons on college campuses.
After the Amy Bishop incident in Huntsville this month, there were a lot of gun advocates on television lamenting the fact that none of the other professors was packing heat. "If only," they said "someone else had a gun, too! None of this would have happened." The problem is, though, that the facts don't bear this out and that, as a teacher, I don't really want my students to have the option to carry a weapon into my classroom. Here's why (with props to The Oracle -- USF's student newspaper, which published an editorial on this topic on 2/15/2010):

1. According to the Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, the more people in the room holding weapons, the more difficult it is for the officers who respond to differentiate between the assailant and those trying to help. In situations where every second counts, this kind of confusion could be deadly.
2. Self defense shootings make up an incredibly small percentage of the gun deaths in the US: In 2005, of the 30,694 gun deaths, only 147 were ruled justifiable homicides.
3. Less than half of the states that issue concealed weapons permits require gun owners to prove weapon proficiency.
4. Even police officers, thoroughly trained in gun use, hit their target only about 20% of the time according to a 2006 article by Gregory B. Morrison in Police Quarterly.
5. There's also this: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that in 1997, 2,514 children aged 0-14 were non-fatally injured by guns. In the same year, 30,225 young people aged 15-24 sustained nonfatal firearm injuries."
6. A new study by the University of Pennsylvania suggests that those who carry guns are 4 times more likely to be involved in violent crime than those who don't. I'm sure there are lots of factors at play here, including the fact that many who live in high crime areas carry weapons, and that this could become a chicken/egg discussion. However, the fact that carrying a weapon correlates strongly to involvement in gun violence is a reality.
   

I have no problem with your right to bear arms, but as a teacher, I feel safer when the only guns allowed in my classroom belong to law enforcement.