PA Bill Number: SB945
Title: Consolidating the act of August 9, 1955 (P.L.323, No.130), known as The County Code; and making repeals.
Description: Consolidating the act of August 9, 1955 (P.L.323, No.130), known as The County Code; and making repeals. ...
Last Action: Third consideration and final passage (199-0)
Last Action Date: Apr 17, 2024
In the wake of more mass shootings, it's time to end gun free zones on campus :: 08/17/2019
It’s time to revisit the campus carry debate. Tragic mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, have once again ignited an intense public debate over how to prevent further acts of senseless violence.
While debates over federal gun regulations are unlikely to provide any substantial solutions to this problem, there remains an opportunity at the state and local level to empower college students to defend themselves.
Currently, there are 12 states that respect a student’s right to carry a firearm on a public campus, with exceptions for certain campus buildings and events. While many students and faculty initially harbored concerns that such laws would lead to increased shootings and violence on campus, time has shown that campuses where students are allowed to carry actually sometimes experience decreases in violent crime.
Take the state of Kansas as an example.
In 2016, students were given the right to concealed carry of firearms on public college and university campuses throughout the state. Initially, faculty and administrators across the state were vehemently opposed to the new law — roughly 50% of those surveyed worried campus carry would lead to an increase in violent crime on campus.
However, just one year later, an analysis from the University of Kansas Police Department showed that despite initial concerns, overall crimes on campus actually declined by 13% from 2016 to 2017. Additionally, crimes of a violent nature decreased substantially during that same time period, including as 50% decrease in assaults on campus, along with a 66% decrease in robberies and burglaries as well.
It is also worth noting that during the same year, the University of Kansas Police Department had zero arrests for criminal weapons violations, indicating that most, if not all of the guns being carried on campus were in the hands of law-abiding citizens. And there is an abundance of research demonstrating that having more law-abiding citizens carrying a weapon in a certain locality results in lower levels of violent crime overall.
For example, a 1997 study by University of Chicago economist John Lott assessed county-level data from 1977 to 1992 to examine the relationship between concealed carry laws and violent crime. The study found that states with unrestricted concealed carry laws experienced 8.5% fewer murders and 5% fewer rapes than states with restrictive concealed carry laws.
So in a time when mass shootings are once again coming into the spotlight, we should be making it easier, not harder, for law-abiding citizens to defend themselves. That starts with ending “gun free zones” on campus.
John Patrick (@john_pat_rick) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential Blog.
