Guns On Campus Benefits

Perez 6

ENC 1101
Professor Boumararte
24 November 2015

Guns on Campus:
A Risk or a Benefit?
Erica Perez

Guns on Campus:
A Risk or a Benefit?

In the recent past, learning institutions have increasingly become crime scenes with dozens of students and professors killed and others wounded. This has sparked debate on whether concealed guns should be allowed within colleges or not. The existing laws prohibits anyone from carrying a gun in and around school premises, but the proponents of the matter are calling for the legalization of concealed guns in schools as the first step in keeping learning institutions safe. They argue that this will give potential victims the ability to respond and defend themselves against criminals. However,

In the event of an attack where students and tutors are to defend themselves, they are unlikely to stop the attackers. Unlike trained police officers, students have a lower hit percentage especially when under a terrifying incident of live shootings. This increases the risk of shooting innocent bystanders or other properties. During such high-stress situations, the majority of students will even find it difficult to draw out their weapons to defend themselves against the assailants. This is majorly due to the lack of the much needed experience and training to maintain their composure and ability to make rational judgments on the course of action to take when attacked. The assumption that students respond appropriately to attacks is somehow untrue. This is because, the lack of training will make them shoot unnecessarily or even shoot their colleagues in the process of shootouts. Therefore, it is evident that allowing gun possession in schools and learning institutions will have little impact in improving safety in schools. A good example of such a case is the Virginia Tech Massacre which took place back in 2007.In this incident, a student opened fire killing thirty-two people and wounded seventeen others in the course of the shooting. This sparked the debate as to whether concealed gun possession would help students defend themselves against such a mishap (Webster & Jon, 216). An important thing to note is that majority of such cases are suicidal. Therefore, with or without

Works Cited
Chen, Grace. "Should Instructors Be Allowed to Carry Guns on Campus? "CommunityCollegeReview.com.Web. 8 Nov 2015.
DeFilippis, Evan. Campus Gun Control Works- Why Guns and Schools Do Not Mix. 7 June 2014. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.
Guns Don 't Belong On College Campuses - Here 's Why. Publichealthwatch.10 Mar 2014. Web
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Issues for Debate in American Public Policy: Selections from the Cq Researcher. 2009. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2009. Web.
Webster, Daniel W, and Jon S. Vernick. Reducing Gun Violence in America: Informing Policy with Evidence and Analysis. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013. Web
Webster, Daniel, W., Vernick, Jon, S., Vittes, Katherine, McGinty, Emma, E., Teret, Stephen, P. And Frattaroli, Shannon. The Case for Gun Policy Reforms in America. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2012.