College Students and Their Rights to a License to Carry
Unfortunately, some of the recent mandates to an outright ban of concealed carry on campus has caused a public outcry against these draconian decisions.
It is important to realize that law-abiding citizens who go through the concealed carry application process are not criminals.
The vetting process itself guarantees this.
They are taking advantage of every means necessary to ensure their safety in unsafe environments.
A person bent on carrying out a public shooting isn’t going to be deterred by laws, policies, and procedures. Not in the least. If someone wants to get their hands on a firearm and ammunition, they will find a way to do so. Rules and laws mean nothing to these people.
Consider any of the recent well-publicized school shootings. These incidents happened in a variety of locations around campus. Regardless, it would seem that if someone standing close to the shooter had a legally concealed gun in their possession, there is a chance the action would have ended much sooner.
Author Elisa Dahlberg addresses this issue perfectly in her article “Colorado Campus Carry Ban Bad for Student Safety” on USConcealedcarry.com:
“Why should my right to self-defense be displaced by someone else’s fear? Interestingly, if an attack were ever to occur at the University of Colorado, such as the attack that happened at Virginia Tech, every professor and every student in every classroom would silently pray, ‘I wish someone here had a gun.’” (Read more about the controversy over a license to carry here)
From that evidence alone, it would seem that during those critical intervening minutes between the start of a conflict and the arrival of trained and armed law enforcement, the ball is in the civilian court.
It is up to us to stop the threat by any means possible, including lethal ones. Since criminals don’t play by the rules, we as everyday citizens should at least have the tools and laws at our disposal to respond appropriately.