A small number of Ohio State students have been wearing empty gun holsters around their waists this week in protest of a campus law prohibiting the possession of firearms on college campuses.
This protest is just a small part of a larger national movement - Students for Concealed Carry on Campus - of more than 5,000 people started by a student at the University of Cincinnati who used Facebook to rally support for the issue.
Evan Peck, a senior in sociology and math, is one of the OSU students participating in the protest and lent holsters to students who did not have one of their own.
Campus safety has been an important topic for many students since the shootings at Virginia Tech in April that killed 33 people. Peck believes the shootings could have been less severe if those licensed to carry a gun were permitted to do so that day.
"Lives would have still been lost, but the amount of lives would have been less," he said.
Jason Roessner, a junior in accounting, agreed.
"They may have been able to make it less damaging," he said. "The police can't be everywhere at the same time."
Roessner and Peck both have concealed-carry permits. To obtain a permit, Peck said one must go through a series of classes, written and oral exams and target practice. They must also be at least 21 years of age and pay for the class and the costs for ammunition.
"I don't think everybody should own a pistol," Peck said.
Peck also said he had three separate altercations as a freshman living on Chittenden Avenue in which he would have benefited from having his pistol.
"I'm not saying I would have shot at him, but it would have helped if I had it," he said.
Others think permitting students to carry guns on campus is a bad idea.
Rick Amweg, assistant chief of University Police, said allowing students to carry weapons would only make matters worse.
"Whether it's a handgun or mace, there's always a chance the criminal could use the weapon against that person," he said. "I think we have a very safe and secure campus."
Mike Tam, a junior in computer science and engineering, said it would only give more students on campus the chance to shoot one another.
"The Virginia Tech situation would have been just as bad," he said.
Sean Carey, a junior in communication, said even more people would have died at Virginia Tech if other students had guns.
"It would have been a much more insane situation," he said. "There would have been a shoot-out."
As far as feeling safe on campus, all four students said they felt safe to some extent.
"I feel safe in class, but I live on 14th Avenue and 4th Avenue, so there are times when I feel less safe, but you realize it's just another part of campus," Carey said.
Roessner, who lives in Dublin and rarely carries his pistol with him off-campus, said he feels fairly safe while on campus.
"But at the same time, just like with Virginia Tech, you never think something like that can happen to you," Roessner said.
Patrick Sullivan can be reached at sullivan.371@osu.edu.
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