Thursday, The Plainsman claimed Auburn was not ready for concealed weapons on campus.
My question: If not now, then when?
The writer acknowledges, "more than likely, a person carrying on campus will not be searched, and no one will ever know he or she brought a weapon onto University grounds. For all we know, classes could be full of students packing heat... you'd never know."
If it's so easy to bring a weapon onto campus, then why should only criminals have the opportunity?
The writer claims, "it would be difficult for police officers and trained professionals to decipher who was shooting whom," but officers must already be prepared to react to this exact scenario.
It's part of their training.
Still, the writer worries the wrong person could get shot during the panic.
I can't predict what will happen in every situation, but I can guarantee that without legal weapons the "right person" has very little chance of being shot before he has inflicted considerable damage.
The writer further insists, "even though a person must be properly trained and licensed to concealed carry, that person is still not a professional."
On this point, they're right.
Concealed-carry license holders are not trained law enforcement officers.
Of course, they also don't use police radios, respond to 911 calls, set up traffic stops, make arrests or respond to other police emergencies.
They're not cops, and they don't pretend to be.
Carrying concealed is about self-defense, not becoming a one-man vigilante team searching for trouble.
The writer asks, "would students be and feel safer if guns were allowed on campus, and they knew, chances were, their classmates were carrying?"
As for being safer, I recommend looking at Colorado State University's crime statistics.
After concealed carry became legal on campus, crime rates plummeted.
As for feeling safer, it may seem intimidating at first, but given the CSU student body's overwhelming reaction to an attempt by the administration to ban guns on campus, I'd say they got used to it and felt safer with weapons than without.
Finally, the writer claims, "allowing guns on campus to try to combat outlier situations, situations which are difficult to predict and hard to prevent, seems like poor logic."
Concealed carry isn't just about "outlier situations."
As I've already mentioned, crime rates at CSU plummeted after concealed carry became legal.
It wasn't just "outlier situations" that fell off the charts.
Even nonviolent crime took a nosedive.
Concealed carry isn't about stopping "the next mass shooting."
It's about granting licensed students the same right to legal self-defense on campus they currently enjoy virtually everywhere else.
Erik Soderstrom
media liaison and state director for Students for Concealed Carry on Campus
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