On Thursday, a University of Illinois graduate student entered a lecture hall on the campus of Northern Illinois University, his alma mater, and killed five students and injured 18 before killing himself. The campus shooting comes less than a year after the tragedy at Virginia Tech, the site of the worst shooting in U.S. history. The tragedies have sparked renewed debate as to whether students with concealed-carry permits should be allowed to have their firearms on campuses, which is currently prohibited in Ohio. Readers might remember the much-publicized October protests by members of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, which demonstrated around campus by wearing empty gun holsters on their waists.
We at The Lantern struggle to imagine what it would be like to have guns in classrooms. Would it deter possible campus shooters? Most likely. But what other consequences would arise? As training is a very necessary component to obtaining a concealed-carry permit, it can also be said that alcohol consumption is a common component to being a college student. Although many opponents of campus concealed-carry permits might envision their lectures turning into the showdown at the O.K. Corral, filled with squinty-eyed students watching and waiting with their fingers delicately tapping the pearled handles of their six-shooters beneath their jackets, a very real possibility is that something such as the Mirror Lake jump could turn into devastation. Here is a campus activity, complete with all the alcohol, adrenaline and testosterone that can be expected during a pre-Michigan November dive into sub-freezing waters, in which, should an altercation break out, bullets might replace fists. This would certainly be a worst-case scenario to allowing those with concealed-carry permits to arm themselves on campus.
Although it can certainly be said that the training needed to earn a concealed-carry permit might be one benefit - however bittersweet - to having guns legally on campus, the fact is that no one is perfect. Accidents happen and a fatal mistake would bode far worse for concealed-carry advocates on campus than a shooting would for the opponents of such legislation. Whether trained students with guns could prevent or minimize the deadly effects of a school shooting is questionable at best and as of yet, there have been no examples of the success or failure of such heroism.
We at The Lantern strongly oppose the legality of carrying a gun on campus.
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