Following a string of campus shootings last year, universities and colleges across the nation have taken to examining the safety policies of their campus, including allowing students to carry concealed weapons on campus, a practice banned in most states.

The issue has achieved debate in the state legislatures of both Virginia and Illinois, and has turned many eyes towards the few campuses that have legalized concealed carry.

Last year in Utah, state government enacted a bill legalizing concealed carry on campuses across the state, a decision which has yet to result in a documented incident.

Colorado State University is one of the few campuses where students are permitted to carry concealed weapons, granted they carry a carrying concealed weapon permit. The policy allows students with a permit to carry their handgun most places on campus including classrooms but not residence halls.

On Campus

Anthony Ryan, a senior art major and campus leader for CSU’s chapter of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, says it might help increase security if students started carrying guns on campus.

“I think it could happen anywhere, and that’s why I think the administration here at CSU and the campus police department allow us to do what we do,” Ryan said. “They know it is a possibility.”

The issue, Ryan told The Rocky Mountain Collegian, is one that affects all students.

“This isn’t just about active shooters,” he said. “This isn’t just about (Virginia Tech) and (University of Northern Illinois) scenarios. This is about any kind of protection from any kind of an assault. We can’t say that there’s not going to be an active shooter, we can’t say that there isn’t going to be an assault.”

Some students, however, feel less safe on a campus that permits concealed carry.

Mark Spowart, a freshman open option major, said he felt uncomfortable with the fact that anyone with a concealed weapons permit was allowed to carry a gun at CSU.

“I think it’s pretty messed up,” Spowart said. “Ten years ago I would have been fine with it, but in light of everything that’s been going on, there’s a lot of fucked-up people out there … I don’t want them walking around campus with a gun. Some people may have it for self-defense, but that nut who says he has it for self-defense and then starts unloading on a crowd … I’m not cool with it.”

Ericka Taylor, a sophomore chemistry major, said it’s not up to students to worry about a shooting, but that students who could carry guns on campus made her nervous.

“I really don’t like the fact (that concealed carry is allowed) because we really don’t need it here on campus,” she said. “We have police, you should feel safe, so I don’t get why you should feel you need to bring your own weapon here on campus when it’s safe already. It makes me nervous that people can be walking around with (guns).”

Ryan argues that those who carry concealed weapons are generally of a more healthy state of mind because they have to qualify for a permit.

“We’re law-abiding citizens; we have to be in order to get approved,” he said.
Jenny Romanin, a sophomore agricultural business major and shotgun sports team president, agrees with Ryan.

“The people that do everything by the book …you go through a course that’s taught by the government,” she said. “They teach you safety. It’s not like, ‘Oh I have a gun, I have road rage, I can go shoot some guy because he cut me off’… the intentions aren’t to go out and hurt anybody or kill anybody.”

Safety’s not political

Christian Heyne, a senior political science major at California State University, Chico, and the President of the recently sanctioned Chico State chapter of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, feels that the main issue at hand is the continuing rate of gun-related death and violence in the United States.

“100,000 people die from gun violence every year, and that’s domestically, and those numbers are too crazy,” Heyne said. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s way too high. It isn’t a Republican issue, it isn’t a Democrat issue, it’s an issue where our family members are dying because the access to guns is too easy in America.”

Regardless of political affiliation, Heyne says that both sides can avoid the irrelevant and interfering nature of political beliefs that push aside the real issue of security.

“So much of this gets lost in party politics, especially on the side of gun control,” Heyne said. “People think that we’re trying to infringe upon their second amendment rights and that’s not what we’re really trying to work toward.”

Staff writer Andy Dose can be reached at news@collegian.com