Last week, Senate Bill 1467, which would require educational institutions to allow individuals with concealed carry permits to carry guns on campus, advanced through the Arizona Senate Rules Committee.
To many students and faculty here at ASU, the very notion of people walking around campus with concealed weapons is disconcerting to say the least.
That’s completely understandable, especially for those who have had limited exposure to guns.
ASU President Michael Crow told The Tucson Weekly, "There is no other function for those devices other than to kill the person who is at the other end of their use.”
Well, I suppose that’s true, provided we don’t qualify things like personal defense, recreation and hunting as “functions of firearms.” Statements like Crow’s only serve to propagate irrational fears and further the stereotype that gun owners must be hyper-violent or ignorant.
In reality, guns have many legitimate purposes, and simply holding one does not magically turn a person into a raving, violent lunatic.
The vast majority of gun owners are responsible, competent adults. This is especially true with those who have been issued concealed carry permits.
Although Arizona no longer requires a permit to carry concealed weapons in most areas, one would be required to have one under SB 1467. These permits require that a person be a U.S. citizen, at least 21 years old, with no felonies and no record of mental illness as well as successful completion of a firearms course authorized by the Department of Public Safety.
My guess is that most of those who would choose to carry would be veterans, ROTC cadets or those planning to go into law enforcement — hardly a recipe for disaster.
According to a 2004 report by the National Academy of Sciences, “There is no credible evidence that ‘right-to-carry’ laws, which allow qualified adults to carry concealed handguns, either decrease or increase violent crime. To date, 34 states have enacted these laws.”
None of this is to say that guns aren’t used for disgusting acts of violence every day. Sadly, they are. But making them disappear is simply not an option, and limiting legal access to guns does little to prevent their use by criminals. On the contrary, gun control gives criminals greater assurance that a potential victim is defenseless.
Sure, it might make some of us feel safer to know that ASU is a “gun-free zone,” but feelings don’t always comport with reality. The shootings at Columbine High School in 1999, UA in 2002, and Virginia Tech in 2007 all had one thing in common: They happened in so-called “gun-free zones.”
As Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, said in a speech at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, "If we could legislate evil out of people's hearts, we would have done it long ago."
And therein lies the core issue. There will always be bad people willing to do bad things. Let us not be so foolish as to think that the wolf plays by the same rules as the sheep.
Reach David at dcolthar@asu.edu
