The whole issue of people being allowed to carry a concealed pistol on college and university campuses is one of trust in the individual. Don’t be foolish or naive enough to believe that just because a community college or university makes a rule or regulation prohibiting the carrying of a firearm on campus that everyone will be willing to abide by it. I know for a fact there are people who regularly carry weapons on campus, both those who feel the rules are made to be broken (criminals) and those who do not trust a rule written on paper to protect them from an ever increasingly violent world.
Every shooting on a school, college or university campus has happened in a “gun free zone”. So what exactly has that done to deter the violence? Nothing that I can see, except prevent people who may have been able to bring an early end to the shooter’s rampage the ability to protect themselves. Studies of past shooting incidents have proven conclusively that the individuals who commit these massacres choose places they know they more than likely will be the only one who will be armed. Those same studies have shown that when an active shooter is confronted by determined armed resistance, they immediately move into their end game strategy, which is suicide. For the most part these shooters are cowards who are determined to kill as many people as possible before ending their own life. Faced with another armed individual, they opt to kill themselves rather than risk being captured and have to face justice for their crimes.
Everyone granted a concealed pistol license had been vetted by the State and FBI to insure they have no criminal past that would prevent them being trusted with the privilege of carrying a concealed firearm. And for the most part they are mature, trustworthy adults who understand the responsibility they have been given to carry their pistol in accordance with the laws. If the State can see fit to trust these people with such a weighty responsibility, why is it our institutions of higher education feel they cannot? Do they feel somehow the individuals are unworthy of the trust shown by society? Or is it simply a knee jerk reaction to a problem that no policy on paper will ever solve?
I would much rather have campuses where legally licensed people are carrying a gun than one where only the criminals are. Maybe this is what it will take to make someone thinking about mass murder on a campus realize that they face a greater chance of being killed before they can go out in the “blaze of glory” they seek, and prevent another massacre.