One Hundred Years of Debate on Concealed Carry

So, everybody at Vandy and their grandmother has weighed in on concealed carry as of late:

• Mike Warren wrote an editorial for the Hustler many moons ago about how lifting the ban on handguns on campus would deter the somewhat frequent muggings.
• Stuart Hill responded in the negative, referencing Virginia Tech.
• The debate in the December issue of the Torch is on concealed carry (with the stupidest titles we could think of): Trevor Williams's "99 Problems, But Guns Ain't One" vs. Douglas Kurdziel's "Mo' Guns, Mo' Problems."
• Erik Soderstrom's response to Douglas's Torch column in Monday's Hustler (gleefully titled "In response to 'Mo' Guns, Mo' Problems'"...like, so much love for somebody actually repeating in seriousness "Mo' Guns, Mo' Problems." Just let that marinate for a minute, repeat it aloud yourself).
• Carolyn Pippen's sarcastic plea for more guns on campus

And a forthcoming response to Carolyn Pippen's column in tomorrow's Hustler that in a typo that was corrected confused the Hustler with the Torch. Now, look, let's all be clear about one thing: the gun ban on campus, like the weather or the presence of Katy Perry in our lives, will not change anytime soon no matter how badly some people wish it would. Nevertheless, I feel the urge to spellbind you with what everybody's been waiting for with bated breath: some of my common sense.

Vandy has a lot of smart kids roaming around. These smart kids got into the 18th best school in this country. They know how to work the system. Intelligent people, who know how to work the system, can get a gun permit. They also, by virtue of being college students, do stupid things. All the time. Guns might not assuage that condition very well.

The mugging Mike's editorial refers to happened in the early morning hours when someone parked their car, alone, in a garage where the lighting surrounding that garage is none too good. This was not the wisest decision ever made. If this person had been carrying a gun, they might not have been robbed, but we might also have had two shooting victims.

The possibility of defending against a tragedy like Virginia Tech may be canceled out, in part, by the increased potential for suicide on college campuses. According to a recent piece in the New England Journal of Medicine:

"The increase in risk is large, typically 2 to 10 times that in homes without guns, depending on the sample population (e.g., adolescents vs. older adults) and on the way in which the firearms were stored. The association between guns in the home and the risk of suicide is due entirely to a large increase in the risk of suicide by firearm that is not counterbalanced by a reduced risk of nonfirearm suicide. Moreover, the increased risk of suicide is not explained by increased psychopathologic characteristics, suicidal ideation, or suicide attempts among members of gun-owning households."

I still have love for the second amendment and have no issues with guns when used and owned by people who respect them. My uncles all hunt, and I've shot a shotgun -- out in the middle of the farm in Florida in the orange groves. I've met plenty of Southern boys who I'd trust to have a gun around for hunting, but I've also met too many here from my Mid-Atlantic homeland who have never been hunting and think guns are awesome -- not people I want storing handguns on campus. The arguments for concealed carry are legitimate; gun ownership is a right, and personal security cannot be impeded upon. But I'm 5'3 and weigh 120 lbs., and I've never felt unsafe on campus; the presence of guns on campus, even legally, might alter that feeling a bit.

Comments

[Jibreel Riley]

I think Plaxico Burress will be calling you guys for ideas

[mikeb302000]

Dear Katherine Miller,

I liked what you wrote very much. I think you make a lot of sense.