Colleges become major front in fight over carrying Guns Research Paper

Colleges become major front in fight over carrying Guns - Research Paper Example But proponents argue that reduced level of criminal events like sorry mass shootings seen in 2007 and 2008 at Virginia Tech and Illinois University respectively is directly associated with prohibition on carrying guns. Banning guns is also a popular argument presently because this strategy curbs the bravado of emotional students who may shoot their professors dead over trivial matters. Sustaining the right to carry guns is a really weak argument because nearly all states in the US are in agreement that this is a really bad idea. Crime is strengthening in the world at a stupendous and horrifying rate. In such a distressing situation, colleges should play an active and efficient role in the noble fight over carrying guns because staying silent and inactive can potentially result in an increased rate of ugly shooting incidents at campuses. This paper basically aims at contemplating the controversial nature of gun rights, what contemporary research has to say on the subject, and reviewin g to what extent colleges are justified in fighting against carrying guns. Research reveals that there is an increased incidence of dangerous behaviors like binge drinking on campuses which is considered by anti-gun advocates as a really good reason to make colleges gun-free zones. Introducing guns into an environment of â€Å"binge drinking, drug use and the pressures that college students are under† (Pelosi cited in Ruiz) is a really bad and wretched thing to do. It is claimed that a high rate of high-risk behaviors witnessed on college campuses like â€Å"binge drinking and drug use are commonly cited by anti-gun advocates as reasons to keep weapons off campus† (Smeck). Understandably, carrying guns at campus by students in contemporary world is seen in a very controversial light because given the severity of certain really bad incidents which have occurred in the US colleges in the past, the right to carry concealed weapons is seen more as a promising threat of unb ridled violence. Only recently, seriously troubled news of murders at Sandy Hook Elementary School generated waves around the US fueling the gun control debate. Only Utah, Colorado, Mississippi, Wisconsin, and Oregon are five states which still permit students to carry guns at campus. Gun advocates in these states still argue that if students are not allowed to carry weapons, other people living outside the law with criminal intentions will get green signal for hitting the vulnerable targets easily getting away with their horrendous actions without being hit in reaction. But it is argued by director of the Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus that â€Å"this argument is not strong enough to justify allowing concealed weapons on campus† (Pelosi cited in Smeck). Actually, more threats are promised by gun allowance than benefits. It is claimed that gun violence â€Å"disrupts American lives, inflames public sentiment, and interrupts the societal concept of ordered liberty† (W ilson 6). Anti-gun sentiments have been building for past five or six years (Moynihan cited in Smeck) especially since the notorious Virginia Tech incident which involves a psychopath student deliberately shooting 32 students and a professor to death. This is recognized as one of the major incidents responsible for initiating a ceaseless debate between advocates and opponents of gun-carrying rights laws. This tragic incident took place in 2007 and just after 5