more comments...
« whindsoull wrote on Thursday, Sep 16 at 03:12 PM »
It's unnecessary to work in the theoretical here--worrying about what might, hypothetically, happen. Concealed carry is allowed in 48 states, and is not a recent development. Because of this, we have a substantial body of data to show its effects.

Allow me to address each of the objections you bring up. Citations are at the bottom.

--"Consider trying to take steady aim while under fire, your classmates shrieking and fleeing madly."

About 11% of police shootings kill an innocent person - about 2% of shootings by citizens kill an innocent person. The odds of a defensive gun user killing an innocent person are less than 1 in 26,000. And that is with citizens using guns to prevent crimes almost 2,500,000 times every year.[1]

--"Increased weapons would only add to the confusion and perhaps lead to the wrong person being injured or even killed."

Less than 1% of all gun homicides involve innocent bystanders.[2]

--"Perhaps it’s naïve and unrealistic to say a shooting on the level of Virginia Tech or Columbine wouldn’t or couldn’t happen at Auburn, but allowing guns on campus to try to combat outlier situations, situations which are difficult to predict and hard to prevent, seems like poor logic."

Actually, disallowing guns on campus makes a mass shooting situation much more likely to occur. It has been shown that multiple victim public shootings drop in states that pass shall-issue concealed-carry legislation.[3] Between 1977 and 1995, the average death rate from mass shootings plummeted by up to 91% after such laws went into effect, and injuries dropped by over 80%.[4]

--"The point is most likely moot, as no one should know you’re carrying a concealed weapon, because, as the name implies, it is concealed."

Now there is something we can agree on.

Citations:

1: Shall Issue: The New Wave of Concealed Handgun Permit Laws, C. Cramer, and D. Kopel,

Independence Institute Issue Paper. October 17, 1994

2: Stray bullets and ‘mushrooms’, Sherman, Steele, Laufersweiler, Hoffer and Julian, Journal of

Quantitative Criminology, 1989

3: Multiple Victim Public Shootings, Bombings, and Right-to-Carry Concealed Handgun Laws:

Contrasting Private and Public Law Enforcement, Lott John R., Landes William M.; University of

Chicago – covers years 1977 to 1995

4: Multiple Victim Public Shootings, Bombings, and Right-to-Carry Concealed Handgun Laws:

Contrasting Private and Public Law Enforcement, John Lott and William Landes, Law School of the

University of Chicago, Law & Economics Working Paper No. 73
« guitar185 wrote on Thursday, Sep 16 at 01:57 PM »
The ban against concealed carry on campus only limits law abiding citizens from carrying, those who wish to do harm with a gun will simply ignore the law and bring a gun on campus anyways, so the law goes beyond pointlessness, its actually punishes and cripples those who legally are allowed to conceal carry. I really wish this short sighted and pointless ban would be lifted. I pray Auburn never ever has to experience anything like what happened at Virginia Tech, I know that if I was ever in a classroom where something like that would happen I would definitely want to take action, but without a gun there would be little or nothing I could do. And as for shooting under high stress situations that argument is a little weak, police officers who have been trained to shoot under stress sometime misidentify a target and an accidental shooting occurs. So should we be restrict their ability to carry since they could possibly shoot the wrong person? I think we would all agree that is a little ridiculous. Also I doubt that lifting the ban would create a nervous student body, due to the fact that the guns still have to be concealed. And as pointed out earlier in this very article "For all we know, classes could be full of students packing heat," and I don't think students are generally nervous about it,a least not that I have noticed as a current student, so I really don't think lifting the ban would create an environment of fear, that's quite a stretch. And as for "how far does the right extend?" question, there are already laws in place for good reason governing most of the places mention. They are prohibited in bars for obvious reasons, you don't want intoxicated people handing weapons, there are also federal laws prohibiting the carry of concealed weapons in municipal buildings, daycares, and schools, these can all be found by simply using google. I'm not entirely sure why the article's author questioned this, there are clear lines already in place governing these locations.
« abm0006 wrote on Thursday, Sep 16 at 11:54 AM »
And Parker.

Can't forget Parker.

Agreed.