Dartblog

1. “More guns increase the likelihood of gun accidents.” The possibility of, say, guns in the hands of drunken fraternity brothers is often cited. In 2005 nearly 17,000 deaths resulted from alcohol-related driving fatalities, yet we are not attempting to ban cars on campus or anywhere else. Currently firearm accidents account for .6% of accidental deaths, less than motor vehicles (39%), poisoning (18%), falls (16%), suffocation (5%), drowning (2.9%), fires (2.8%), medical mistakes (2.2%), environmental factors (1.2%), and bicycles and tricycles (0.7%).

2. “Campus shooters are irrational, so concealed carry will not deter crime.” Violent criminals (like the shooters at Virginia Tech and NIU) may be not be persuaded not to kill by rational discourse over policy, but they can be shot.

3. “There is a high potential for misuse.” The state of Utah permits concealed carry on campus already; they have had neither accidents nor campus shootings. Concealed carry off-campus has similarly not led to a high prevalence of accidents. Most states already have preexisting requirements for concealed carry permits on top of checks at the stage of purchasing a firearm. Only folks trained and qualified to carry firearms will be permitted to have them on campus, as in the population at large.

4. “Guns will facilitate other crimes.” Quite the contrary. Among the amici who wrote briefs supporting gun rights in D.C. v Heller, a gun rights case before the Supreme Court, were Jews, African-Americans, LGBT, handicapped and disabled persons, and women. All of these groups recognize that guns level the playing field, allowing historically marginalized and victimized groups to protect themselves in the face of crime.

5. “We need less guns on campus, not more.” The campuses on which shootings have taken place have not allowed guns. It cannot be repeated too many times, especially because many people seem not to understand the point: someone seeking to massacre scores of students is unlikely to care that they are violating state (or school) gun policy. To rephrase and repeat, someone willing to murder (which there are also laws against) will not be deterred by gun bans on campus.

Reasonable people may disagree on the issue of gun rights, but every level of discourse on the subject let’s have a debate based on fact and logic not, as Jenn aptly put it, “knee jerk reactions to emotional stimuli.”