I’ve done a lot of research over gun free zones. In fact, that is how I came across this blog. Thinking I would find an anti-gun website, I clicked on it to see what their sources were. I then figured out that this is a great site, and kept up with the site while doing more research. So I just want to express my findings with the rest of you. By the way, I am a senior in college. Just so you know, not everyone in academics is anti-gun 🙂
Honestly, I have always been opposed to the idea of gun free zones. When I began my research for my composition class I thought, “Hey, what if I find condemning evidence against allowing guns in certain zones.” So I put off that “what-if” and decided to cross that bridge when I get there. However, I never even laid eyes on the “Bridge ices before road” sign.
Instead, most of the information I came across suggested that gun free zones, especially on college campuses, were unnecessary (not to mention the stripping rights of citizens). Utah has mandated that public colleges and universities allow concealed guns on campus. The University of Utah fought for two years against the bill and lost in 2006. Which means that Utah has had this bill for more than a decade. In K-12 schools, licensed faculty are allowed to carry concealed. In 2014, Ron Isaacson, assistant director of public safety at Dixie State College, cited an incident where a handgun fell out of a bag and onto a chair in a library. Another student sat on the gun, picked it up, and allegedly did not realize it was real. No one was hurt. There were “a few” reports of threats according to Isaacson as well. In the entire state, no discharges have occurred on higher education facilities.
What about K-12 you ask? Well, according to the Salt Lake Tribune, “The folks at Westbrook Elementary School in Taylorsville can thank their lucky stars” all because a teacher’s handgun went off in a restroom. The lady was in the restroom alone (and before school started), and the firearm negligently discharged, hitting her in one leg. Thankfully, as far as I know, the lady was not penalized. Perhaps while pulling her pants up or down, her holster was not good enough and an accident happened. That’s what we learn here. We did not decide that guns on campus is bad.
There have been no classroom shootouts over disputes. No drunk students have wandered onto campus to shoot anyone. When Isaacson’s best defense after a decade against preferring no guns on campus is a student who could not recognize a real gun and held it, it becomes quite clear that gun free universities are unnecessary. There are many other reasons why gun free zones should not exist, but I will save some of my other sources for the future.
Have a nice day, everyone.
Update: I just wanted to say thank you to the community here for the kind welcome!
GFZs are just feel-good saccharine policies for the fearful left. Regardless of signage, students, faculty, and visitors just might decide to carry their (concealed) firearms onto campus. Unless campuses wall themselves off and have airport-style checkpoints for entry, these provisions are nigh-unenforceable. And of course criminals, by definition, won’t give a rat’s ass about the notices either. As the meme says “Do Not Enter – Or Enter – I’m A Sign, Not A Cop”
The only thing a GFZ does is maybe provide for a tack-on penalty for a criminal caught in one. “OK, you killed someone and raped them, aaaaaand you violated a gun-free-zone!”
Just in case the prosecution can’t cook their goose on the whole killing-and-raping thing.
Also how disingenuous is this whole “Tempers will flair and guns will turn a discussion into a murder!” is!
How often do you hear about a controversial teacher getting beaten up after challenging a student on their view? We all have hands!
How often do you hear about arguments degrading into a knife fight? Knives aren’t banned on campuses!
If people are being driven so crazy with rage that they’d commit an act of murder….why ONLY with a gun?
If college kids had that sort of temper in general, I don’t think a GFZ would stop them from bringing in a gun to campus and letting the prof have it. College kids might be a lot of things, but by that age, they at least know how to respect the sanctity of human life.
Naturally, it is of course the teachers who try to harm the students when the students do something that the teachers don’t agree with.