Write (or revise) a 700-word essay in response to the attached document.

MAY 31, 2016

Should Guns Be Permitted on College Campuses?

This summer, Tennessee will begin allowing faculty and staff at public colleges and universities to carry weapons on campus and Texas will allow concealed carry not just on campus but in university buildings and classrooms. The Georgia Legislature considered similar measures but the governor vetoed the bill earlier this month. That brings the number to 10 states that allow guns on campus. Is this a good idea?

Guns on Campus Make Colleges Less Safe

Javier Auyero 

Last year, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas signed SB 11, also known as the “campus carry” law. The law allows licensed holders to carry concealed handguns in university buildings and classrooms, extending the reach of a previous law that permitted concealed handguns on university grounds. The law goes into effect Aug. 1, 2016 for Texas public colleges and universities, and a year later for community colleges. How will this law affect life on campus?

To answer this question, let me go back to the debate that took place in the Texas Legislature last year. The debate – if we can call it that – was not about logical, evidence-based arguments, but guided by the interests and ideological commitments of the state legislators and the organizations that support them. Had it been about logic or evidence, the reasons put forward byWilliam H. McRaven, the chancellor of the University of Texas and a former Navy SEAL, and Art Acevedo, chief of the Austin Police Department – both of whom know a thing or two about the subject – would have been heeded. They both opposed the new legislation with a similar argument: Allowing concealed weapons on campuses will create “less-safe” environments. When there are more guns around, there is more risk – it’s as simple as that.

Allowing guns in classrooms (against the will of the overwhelming majority of professors, staff and students) will not only increase risk but, as has been argued elsewhere, will stifle classroom debates – an essential component of learning. It will furthermore irredeemably hurt the national and international reputation of the flagship University of Texas at Austin and other Texas universities. Reputations take a notoriously long time to build, but a short time to destroy.

Do I dread the potential presence of young vigilantes – because, let’s not be euphemistic about it, “vigilante” is the right word for the people (mostly men) who will carry concealed guns – in my classroom? Certainly. But I don’t want to concede an inch to fear mongers: University campuses are some of the safest places in the United States. What I do fear, what I am truly scared of, is that we will get used to the presence of guns. I fear that sharing a classroom with students “packing heat” will stop shocking us as it now does, and that we will become something other than what we are: Women and men committed to teaching and learning in environments where everybody can freely express his or her ideas.

Why I Would Have Liked to Have My Weapon With Me in College

Amanda Collins

In college eight years ago, I was raped in a parking garage only feet from the campus police office.

I could see the police cruisers parked for the night as this stranger raped me, pistol to my head. I knew no one was coming to help me.

At the time of my attack, I had a Nevada concealed carry permit. But in Nevada, permit holders are not allowed to carry firearms on campuses. As someone who obeys the law, I left my firearm at home when I went to school. The law that was meant to safeguard me – the gun-free zone – only guaranteed I would be defenseless.

Eventually the man was caught, tried and convicted – not just for using a gun in gun-free zone, but also for raping two other women and murdering one. My attacker was not a student, nor did he have a concealed-carry weapon permit.

I still wonder what would have been different if I’d had my weapon that night. But here’s the truth: I feel certain that I would have been able to stop the attack. Not only that, but two other rapes would have been prevented and three young lives would have been saved, including my own.

Any survivor of rape can understand that the young woman I was when I walked into the parking garage that night was not the same woman who left. My life has never been the same. Campus carry would have saved my family and me a great deal of untold torment.

My case is a perfect example. Despite law enforcement’s best efforts, they can’t be everywhere at once. All I wanted was a chance to effectively defend myself. The choice to participate in one’s own defense should be left to the individual, not mandated by the government. I should not have to hand over my safety to a third party. Laws that prohibit campus carry turn women like me into victims.

Mental Health, Not Mass Shooters, Is the Bigger Problem at Universities

Jazz Silva

Some lawmakers now believe that allowing students to carry their own weapons is a feasible solution to preventing mass shootings on college campuses. Simply put, students do not want guns on their college campuses. Along with 13 student body presidents in Texas, representing a total of more than 300,000 students, I signed aletter asking state legislators to reject a bill that would allow guns in college cafeterias, dorms and classrooms.

According to the F.B.I., mass shootings account for less than 2 percent of gun-related deaths, while suicide accounts for roughly 61 percent of gun-related deaths. College students are more likely to use a gun on themselves than to protect themselves during a mass shooting.

After a year of serving as student body president, I have seen more public safety issues arise from improper mental health care than criminal violence. I’ve seen students committed to the psychiatric ward and balconies at dormitories locked because of suicide attempts; I've had a student come to my room in tears confessing that he wanted to kill himself.

Never once in my tenure did I experience a moment where guns would have contributed to student wellbeing.

In Texas, there is no assault weapons ban, no magazine capacity restriction and no mandated background check for private sales. These weak state laws would exacerbate the risk of tragedy on campus should guns be introduced.

As someone who grew up with firearms at home, I’ve seen that responsible gun ownership can create a sense of security. But it requires that a gun owner has extensive training, can ensure their weapons are secured at all times, and is capable of exercising sound judgement at a moment's notice. Unfortunately, this describes a campus police officer and not your average college student.

If allowing students to own guns is truly about empowerment, we should listen to students when they say they don’t want guns on campus. Misguided initiatives from lawmakers should not trump the concerns of students.

The University Police Can’t Prevent Violent Crimes

Nelson Lund 

The majority of colleges pretend that disarming responsible adults makes their students safer. The university at which I work, for example, forbids faculty, staff and students to bring their weapons to school, even if they have a concealed-carry permit issued by the government. Visitors, however, are allowed to bring guns to the campus (with or without a permit), and restricted areas like classroom buildings don’t even have signs announcing a restriction. So the administrators obviously are not worried about armed visitors. Nor can they rationally believe that students and employees with concealed-carry permits would be a greater threat on campus than they are at the shopping center across the street.

The university police are unable to prevent violent crimes, and it is heartlessly arrogant to disarm potential victims, leaving them and those they could protect at the mercy of rapists and other predators. Armed citizens frequently save lives and prevent violent crimes, often without firing a shot. Nearly all mass shootings occur in “gun-free zones,” and some of these massacres have been stopped by civilians who intervened after retrieving a gun.

All but a handful of states have adopted laws allowing law-abiding adults to carry a concealed handgun in public. About 13 million Americans now have concealed-carry permits, and 11 states do not even require a permit. As the number of armed citizens has skyrocketed, violent crime has gone down, not up, and permit holders almost never abuse their rights.

In Florida, for example, where permits have been available for almost thirty years, they have been revoked for firearm misuse at an annual rate of 0.0003 percent; even the police have higher rates of firearms violations (and higher overall crime rates) than permit holders.

When murders and even massacres occur, as they have at other “gun-free” schools, university bureaucrats will undoubtedly absolve themselves of guilt, wash the blood from their demonstrably unsafe spaces, and call in the grief counselors. Some state legislatures have put a stop to these callous disarmament policies, and others should do the same.