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Opinion: Student's shouldn't be allowed to carry guns on campus

Tennessee lawmakers are taking steps to introduce legislation that will allow students to carry concealed weapons on campus, in which students would be required to pass state tests and obtain concealment permits for their registered firearms.

The legislature is similar to a bill passed in 2016, which allows full-time members of faculty and staff to carry concealed weapons on campus. Staff members are required to provide the relevant permits to local officials and campus safety officers, but which permit will prevent thousands of innocent deaths each year? Fears are ricocheting throughout college campuses across Tennessee as students realize the potential grave danger this will perpetually place them in.

“I don’t agree with the bill at all," said Courtney Balchett, a freshman biology major. "We’re students at college, there are children on this campus, it makes the campus much more dangerous if anyone can carry a gun."

Courtney believes the already present use of guns on campus makes these bills passing an unnecessary danger risk to the university population.

“We already have security and police officers on campus, so there’s no need for others to be carrying guns,” Blanchett said.

The new legislature will bestow students with the same permissions campus staff currently have, meaning they will be able to carry their guns into classes, to campus jobs, and while eating lunch among fellow students.

In the last two weeks, students have received two emergency alerts notifying them of armed robberies, which have taken place on university grounds. These crimes further plead whether the introduction of more guns into campus would lower the crime rate or bolster the issue.

Tony Crawford, a 55-year-old technology worker, is a gun advocate and carries a handgun via his concealment permit around the city of Memphis. Crawford said citizens who carry guns legally are the key to lowering casualties regarding shootings.     

“The police cannot be there all the time," Crawford said. "There’s going to be a time where you’ll be by yourself, and you’ll need a gun to defend yourself,” Crawford said.

Crawford said he strongly believes in second amendment rights and that everyone should be able to protect themselves from potential danger.

The new bills, HB 2102 and SB 2288, were filed in late January and early February, and are undergoing the political notions needed for them to be passed into law. The relevant bill regarding staff members (SB 2376) took four months to be passed back in 2016, and officially came into effect in May of the same year.

Most students are not only unaware of the staff’s weaponry privileges, but also of the new legislation currently proposed.

“I didn’t know staff was allowed to carry weapons," said Raianna Parker, a junior sociology and psychology major.that makes me very uncomfortable. “I’m not a gun person. I don’t feel like adding more guns is a safe option. Instead, we should be taking them away.”

Parker also expressed her concerns regarding the regulations allowing students to carry lethal weaponry.

“Who certifies these people? Who does the tests? How often are they renewed?” Raianna said.

The course allowing Tennessee residents to carry concealed weapons is based online. This provides little security when citizens can skip safety videos in order to complete their tests quicker, something Democrat Jeff Yarbo exhibited in protest to the introduction of online training.

The rules currently in place throughout Tennessee are lax at best. Students who have never fired a weapon before would now be able to walk around armed and untrained. This is something that still worries pro-gun student Paul Mowry.

“Even if you have a permit, not everyone is good with guns, so I don’t trust everyone,” Mowry said. “I have military experience, so I would be fine with me carrying on campus, but I don’t think just any student should carry.”

Mowry said the passing of the bill would make the university both safer and more dangerous at the same time.

Bills HB2102 and SB2288 will potentially allow untrained students into crowds of thousands of their peers. This directly puts innocent student's lives in the line of fire, endangering innocent young adults and potentially robbing them of their futures.

There are no tests that could ever predict a future mass shooter and no exams, which can justify adding guns to campuses. It’s a simple case of subtraction, not addition.


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