US laws allowing guns on campus tempt more violence

 A story in the Boston Review in 2014 tells about Richard Martinez,’ the father of son Chris killed on the campus of the University of California Santa Barbara, plea to stop gun violence on college campuses.

“Why did Chris die?” he asked, choking back tears. “Chris died because of craven, irresponsible politicians and the [National Rifle Association]. They talk about gun rights. What about Chris’s right to live?” He went on, “When will this insanity stop? . . . We don’t have to live like this,” they said in the report.

In the light of gun violence on college campuses, gun advocates are using it as an excuse to legalize firearms. Furthermore, they are trying to convince Americans that carrying a gun will ensure the safety of female students and reduce sexual assaults.  The research, however, does not support gun advocates position.

Support for campus carry laws argues that armed students and faculty members could prevent mass shootings like the one at Virginia Tech in 2007. The carrying of concealed firearms on college campuses is banned in 41 states by law or by university policy. Carrying guns openly is generally not permitted, but that could change as gun groups continue to propagandize guns as a deterrent to criminally acts.

Pro-gun groups together with the NRA have been promoting concealed carry of firearms in schools and college campuses for a few years. The NRA says, “Colleges rely on colorful ‘no gun’ signs, foolishly expecting compliance from psychopaths.”

Individual state legislatures in some states are supporting the NRA position and submitting bills to state policy makers.

An Indiana law allows guns on school property, so long as they are contained within parked cars. “Teachers have to leave their 2nd Amendment rights at the front door when they go to work,” said Indiana Senator Brent Steele, explaining why he supported guns at schools, in spite of the fact that the courts have never wavered on the constitutionality of gun bans on school property.

A bill in Nebraska, if passed, would allow teachers and school employees to carry concealed handguns in schools. In Idaho Governor Butch Otter recently signed a law that allows residents with “enhanced concealed-carry permits” to keep firearms on college campuses. A similar bill passed a Florida Senate panel but ultimately was voted down.

Gun advocates and some lawmakers believe the new legislation with improve security in schools.  They believe that if students and teachers are armed shootings like Columbine High School in 1999 could be prevented.  They fail to mention, however, that there were armed security guards at Columbine High School.

The logic they profess would have prevented or made less deadly at Virginia Tech in 2007, Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, UCSB, Seattle Pacific University; however, the research does not support their position.

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Evidence for firearms in schools is the opposite of what gun advocates purport

In 2013 The American Psychological conducted research on gun violence:  Prediction, Prevention and Policy. They commissioned a panel of experts to reveal research-based conclusions and recommendations to reduce the incidence of gun violence including homicide, suicide and mass shootings.

The following are the findings: Prevention efforts guided by research on developmental risk can reduce the likelihood that firearms will be introduced into community and family conflicts or criminal activity. Prevention efforts can also reduce the relatively rare occasions when severe mental illness contributes to homicide or the more common circumstances when depression or other mental illness contributes to suicide. Reducing incidents of gun violence arising from criminal misconduct or suicide is an important goal of broader primary and secondary prevention and intervention strategies. Such strategies must also attend to redirecting developmental antecedents and larger socio-cultural processes that contribute to gun violence and gun-related deaths.

What works:  Policies to reduce gun violence

The use of a gun greatly increases the odds that violence will lead to a fatality: This problem calls for urgent action. Firearm prohibitions for high-risk groups — domestic violence offenders, persons convicted of violent misdemeanor crimes, and individuals with mental illness who have been adjudicated as being a threat to themselves or to others — have been shown to reduce violence. The licensing of handgun purchasers, background check requirements for all gun sales, and close oversight of retail gun sellers can reduce the diversion of guns to criminals. Reducing the incidence of gun violence will require interventions through multiple systems, including legal, public health, public safety, community, and health. Increasing the availability of data and funding will help inform and evaluate policies designed to reduce gun violence.

In the report, they contend that the use of a gun greatly increases the odds of a gun fatality.  Additionally, studies by the National Research Council conducted in 2004 and again in 2010 to address the relationship between right-to-carry laws and crime rates and both times found that concealed carry laws have a negligible effect on crime rates, according to a report by the Boston Review.

Concealed carrying increases rates of aggravated assault. Two legal scholars, Ian Ayres and John Donohue, further reviewed the findings supporting concealed carry and discovered that the data contain numerous coding and econometric errors that, when corrected, yield the opposite conclusion: right-to-carry laws increase crime.

In conclusion, the Boston Review said it best:

“The NRA supports bills that permit guns to be carried in vehicles on school grounds, arguing that firearm owners should not be punished for accidentally leaving a gun in their car. Curiously, there seems to be little concern for what happens if the same careless owner accidentally forgets to lock his car, accidentally fails to put the safety on, or accidentally pulls the trigger, ad infinitum. It seems clear that there are many more ways to accidentally go wrong with a gun than there are ways to go right, and this is especially true in a densely populated, anxiety-ridden, alcohol-saturated, hormone-fueled school environment.”

Resources
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/19/us/in-bid-to-allow-guns-on-campus-weapons-are-linked-to-fighting-sexual-assault.html?ref=politics&_r=0
http://www.bostonreview.net/us/evan-defilippis-guns-schools-nra-ucsb
https://www.nraila.org/articles/20121001/allow-concealed-carry-on-campus
http://www.apa.org/pubs/info/reports/gun-violence-prevention.aspx