Updated 1:05 p.m. EDT, Tuesday
The rampage at Virginia Tech that left at least 33 people dead Monday touched a nerve over gun control on college campuses, including among Virginia lawmakers who had recently sparred over a firearms ban at the Blacksburg, Va., campus.
The most recent legislative debate in Virginia, one of 48 states that issue permits allowing citizens to carry concealed firearms, arose after Virginia Tech disciplined an unnamed student who brought a firearm to class in 2005.
State Del. Mark Cole (R) this spring failed to push through a
measure that would have let students with concealed-carry permits bring firearms on campus, trumping the school’s policy prohibiting them. The legislation languished in a subcommittee after a hearing. A similar measure failed last year.
The same issue came up this year in Utah, too, with the opposite result. The University of Utah gave up its struggle to keep its gun restrictions. A new
law signed last month by Gov. Jon Huntsman (R) allows students to request roommates who don’t have a concealed-carry permit. Students 21 or older can bring firearms to campus if they have permits.
Authorities on Tuesday identified the assailant as Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old Virginia Tech student from South Korea, but it’s unknown whether he was permitted to own and carry a firearm. But what quickly became clear was that the shooting wouldn’t settle the policy issue of whether to ban guns on campus, especially in states that allow citizens to carry concealed firearms.
“We had gun control at the school, and we had 33 people killed. Was that not enough? Do we need to kill more before people realize gun control doesn’t work?” said Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun-rights advocacy group that backed legislation to rescind Virginia Tech’s gun ban.
Virginia state Del. Todd Gilbert (R), who attempted to override Virginia Tech’s gun ban last year, said Monday: “Anybody who’s going to go on a murder spree and then kill himself is not going to be deterred by a law or regulation. He’s only going to be deterred by the end of another gun.”
In the past, Virginia Tech officials defended their gun ban as a way to promote an academic environment free of fear. They noted that other legal items, such as candles, are also prohibited in campus dormitories.
Virginia’s laws are unclear on whether universities have the authority to regulate guns on campus. Law enforcement groups pushed for a law to explicitly give colleges that power after three people were shot dead in 2002 at Appalachian Law School in Grundy, Va., but those efforts failed. Representatives for the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police and the state’s Fraternal Order of Police could not be reached for comment Monday.
Utah’s new law comes after a six-year fight between the university and legislators championing gun rights. The school fought to keep its gun ban on the books by heading to court, but lawmakers thwarted the move by passing a law in 2004 specifically curtailing the university’s authority to restrict guns on campus.
The Utah Supreme Court ruled last September that the university did not have the constitutional authority to sidestep the 2004 law. The school dropped a federal lawsuit over the restrictions when Huntsman signed the subsequent bill in March.
All but two states — Illinois and Wisconsin — allow permit holders to carry concealed weapons.
But 38 states ban firearms on school grounds, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Of those, 16 explicitly prohibit concealed weapons on college campuses: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Kansas, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Vermont and Wyoming.
Some states that allow concealed weapons with permits let universities set their own policies. Nebraska’s concealed-gun law, which took effect this year, bans hidden firearms on school grounds, but the state attorney general issued an opinion that colleges and universities don’t count as schools. So college campuses, like private businesses that want to keep out firearms, must post conspicuous signs banning guns. University of Nebraska spokeswoman Kelly Bartling said the school has signs bearing a gun with a slash through it in all its parking lots.
A 2003
survey by the Alliance for Justice, a Washington, D.C., advocacy group, showed that 82 of 150 of the biggest universities in the country ban all firearms on campus. Another 25 required firearms to be stored at a special facility, 27 allowed guns only for authorized uses (such as military programs) and 22 universities required campus approval for firearms.
Virginia Tech
bars students and most employees from bringing firearms or weapons on campus. Guns and other weapons may be stored at the campus police station to be checked out for off-campus use.
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By Nancy LeBourgeois on Apr 23, 2007 6:02:55 PM
While I agree with you that this kid fell between the cracks I have to say that if I had been at the site of the 1st attack and had my gun (which I have a concealed permit for)there would have been no 2nd attack.
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Reply to guns on campus
By EDDIE HORD on Apr 23, 2007 4:47:54 PM
Allowing concealed weapons on campus might not solve the problem but it would definitely deter a would-be assailant. It would be great if we could conduct "?mental evaluations"? for all students and prevent professors and other students from "bullying" other students, but to be realistic, this is not going to happen. It is our responsibility, our constitutional right to protect and defend ourselves. It is the current day of political correctness and mindset of running away or cowering instead of standing your ground that causes people to panic rather that react. It was stated "Putting guns in schools will only provide access for a person to overpower a person and take their weapon from them." I don't know about you, but I didn't hear of any of the faculty or students attempt to disarm the murderer at VT. Basic self-defense measures might have prevented such a large number of casualties. The fact that we teach our kids that they will be taken care of instead of teaching them to take care of themselves creates a whole new generation of victims. If you walk around oblivious to your surroundings and act like little sheep that need to be taken care of, then you will probably be eaten. Personally I would rather be the wolf in sheep's clothing. Conceal and carry means just that. There are people you encounter everyday that have a gun on them legally and the general public is oblivious to the fact. How are you to be disarmed if nobody knows you are carrying? If I did know they were carrying, they would be the last person I would provoke into defending themselves. It is commonplace for people to fear things they are un-familiar with. Take some time, get some basic defensive firearm training, and go to the range. You will find that most gun enthusiast are genuine red-blooded Americans who want nothing more than to be able to exercise their 2A right to bear arms and are happy to share their knowledge. There are bad people in this world that would like nothing more than to assault you, your family, and your friends. If it is my family, I'm not going to wait for someone to come to the rescue, I am going to react and diffuse the situation. It is probable that 80% of those that carry will ever have to draw their gun in self-defense, but if that situation does arrive, they have the right to do so. Train how to fight, fight like you train.
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allowing guns on campus is not going to solve the problem
By Floyd Green on Apr 19, 2007 4:31:27 PM
Just because you allow concealed weapons on campus is not going to solve the problem that escalated Monday in Virginia. There has to be mental evaluation tests given to students every school semester including college entrance exams.....we know that a persons' state of mind changes constantly with biological and environmental changes. Putting guns in schools will only provide access for a person to overpower a person and take their weapon from them. Plus, it allows for a person to find a concealed weapon that may have been lost. From what all the information given so far concerning the shooting it seems that name-calling or a form of "bullying" was allowed by educators. All my condolences go out to the families and the University concerning this tragedy, but "bullying" is a big problem all across the Nation's school system. We see that it does not stop for some that attend small time colleges, and this issue of "bullying" has got to stop. You even here instructors making fun of a student or looking at a student as though that student has made a farfetched statement, yet only to be criticized by the instructor, when it is the instructors job to correct the statement or give some explanation to the statement that was made by a student. We cannot put the blame on no one but the young man that has committed this crime. But it is our job as intelligent individuals to come up with some types of solutions to evaluating the mental state of all off our students....and if we have instructors belittling students we must all the more question the ethics and integrity of that instructor as well. Text messaging billboards in the classrooms will help to leviate some of the anxiety in the classrooms, just as we post amber alerts. Mental evaluation tests are needed for our children all the more but that will not solve the question. How do we protect our schools? We approach our schools with the way the we approach everyday life. Our schools are just like each and every individual person...it is the way that we treat ourselves which slows how with treat our schools....and the way we treat others will reflect what we have learned....
so mental testing for our children is needed at the beginning of every school semester or when needed, and provide each classroom with test messaging billboards. Guns only bring violence, it does not solve violence.
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