7 States Considering Allowing Guns On College Campuses

Schools have traditionally been gun-free zones, but some states are considering loosening or changing laws when it comes to firearms on campus.

While some say that allowing guns on campus would increase violent incidents, others say that armed students would be better able to protect themselves in crisis situations.

According to Armedcampuses.org, an anti-gun site which lists postsecondary institutions that currently allow firearms on campus, Utah is the only state which prohibits colleges from setting institutional rules regarding guns on campus and expressly allows arms on campus. Colorado, Michigan and Virginia allow institutions to ban guns at their discretion, but host a number of schools which allow firearms on campus.

Below, check out seven states moving towards looser campus gun laws.

Do you think colleges should allow guns on campus? Share your thoughts and reactions in the comments section.

Comments

[John Hamner]

08:45 AM on 04/29/2011

Interestingly, these legislators aren't advocating allowing guns to be introduced into their workplace. Maybe they should start their experimenting there?

[CropCircles]

08:40 AM on 04/28/2011

Before long there will be bullet vending machines on campus for convenience.

[Barista]

03:16 PM on 04/20/2011

Here is my take on the situation in Texas:

http://www.billwilsonwriter.com/index.php?p=1_15_GUNS-ON-CAMPUS

[John Howell]

07:23 AM on 04/17/2011

This article begins with a lie. Schools have NEVER been "gun free" zones, except in the deluded minds of those who wrote such "laws." Virginia Tech was NOT gun free. Columbine High School was NOT gun free. They and other campuses that suffered mass murders were actually "free kill" zones where killers knew that people were unlikely to stop them.

[blurredmolly]

08:57 AM on 04/17/2011

whatever

[Veritmot]

12:45 AM on 04/17/2011

All members of the US Congress and state legislatures should also strap on six shooters and wear 2 gallon hats to show support for "safety" in our schools. Also, maybe it should be considered at the lower educational levels as it might reduce the incidence of bullying.

[farmilyman]

04:36 PM on 04/11/2011

No wonder we're falling behind other nations in education.

[farmilyman]

04:32 PM on 04/11/2011

All the more reason to bypass traditional college and take online courses.

[danglines]

01:59 PM on 04/11/2011

How stupid,and inappropriate.

[OdinsEye]

03:00 PM on 04/08/2011

"Schools have traditionally been gun-free zones"

That "tradition" only began in the 1980s. If you actually look at the history of schools, they traditionally had allowed firearms on campus until the gun control movement really started taking off about 30 years ago.

[David Carson]

04:16 PM on 04/08/2011

and high schools actually had rifle teams in my lifetime

[slip kid]

05:23 PM on 04/08/2011

Unless concealed carry in classrooms was allowed prior to the 1980s, your "look at the history of schools" is irrelevant to the issue at hand.

[OdinsEye]

06:24 PM on 04/08/2011

Concealed carry was allowed on most campuses.

[DR2]

11:50 PM on 04/07/2011

I guess those who advocate guns on a college campus want to return to the days of the Old West and have shoot-outs wherever and whenever it seems necessary. Except our guns today are more efficient, automatic and even more deadly. More innocent people will be killed or wounded. Just what we need, more untrained, possibly drunk and angry people with guns.

[JimInHouston]

09:08 AM on 04/08/2011

"I guess those who advocate guns on a college campus want to return to the days of the Old West and have shoot-outs wherever and whenever it seems necessary."

I guess so, because that's what happens on those campuses where carry is already allowed...

RIGHT??

[HisXLNC]

03:59 PM on 04/08/2011

The "Old West" as you believe it to have been did not exist.

[DR2]

01:44 AM on 04/09/2011

If you mean the "Old West" as depicted in many movies, you are correct. However, the fact is many wore guns and they were not for decoration or just rattlesnakes. History, for the most part, just recorded the more colorful or well known gun fights. Law, as we know it, was very limited or none existent. There were macho punks then as there is today. Saying there were many shoot-outs during the "Old West" I don't think is that much of a stretch.

You might find this site interesting. http://www.vlib.us/old_west/guns.html

[SilentSolidarity]

11:15 PM on 04/07/2011

Good. let insanity ring in within their administrative regions as long as their gun worshiping and liquor store culture doesn't spill over to the green blue states.

[SMBrown2]

07:41 PM on 04/07/2011

Leave slip kid alone guys. He's entitled to his opinion, no matter how divorced from reality they may be.

[slip kid]

07:44 PM on 04/07/2011

My opinion are divorced from reality? What make you says that?

[legaleagle 45]

08:06 PM on 04/07/2011

Because, according to you, you are willing to expend millions and millions of dollars on security systems at colleges, not out of any concern over safety, but merely to resolve your personal feelings of repulsion involving the carrying of firearms by persons who have been duly licensed by the state to do so.

[rikilii]

11:03 AM on 04/08/2011

"...and lies."

Lie #1.  Unless, of course, you can point out a single lie told elsewhere by a gun-rights supporter in this set of comments.

[OdinsEye]

03:01 PM on 04/08/2011

IOW, you've got nothing.

[Megandale]

12:34 PM on 04/07/2011

And those seven states will be the states my children will not go to college.

[Old Jarhead]

12:38 PM on 04/07/2011

Check the link. There may be many more you would like to avoid.

http://www.opencarry.org/college.html

I counted 23 states. Of course, while some of them don't prohibit the practice, it may be difficult to obtain a CHL.

[slip kid]

01:01 PM on 04/07/2011

It is indicative of a society in decline that there exists a resource for those who will base their college choice upon whether or not they can take their guns with them.

[Patriot Henry]

01:41 PM on 04/07/2011

"And those seven states will be the states my children will not go to college. "

Make sure to not let your kids go to the grocery store or other public places either in other states.

[slip kid]

02:11 PM on 04/07/2011

Passing someone in the cereal aisle is a little different than spending all day, every day with them in a classroom, wouldn't you say, "Patriot"? Why anyone needs to carry a gun to go grocery shopping is another discussion.

[Megandale]

02:42 PM on 04/07/2011

Your comparison is silly. I do not think kids, alcohol and guns are a good comination. Let your kids go to a college that allows guns, I will choose not to.

[Jacob Black]

11:58 AM on 04/07/2011

That is some air-tight logic. We should probably let John Kerry and Jon Stewart know that they are cowards, "scare-di-cats," and have small you know whats.

[slip kid]

12:19 PM on 04/07/2011

Your presumption that John Kerry and Jon Stewart are not cowards or "scare-di-cats", and that they don't have small you know whats is no more representative of "air-tight logic" than were the poster's suggestions to the contrary.

[rikilii]

12:22 PM on 04/07/2011

How original and clever.  Another baseless ad hominem argument.

[Meggie]

11:29 AM on 04/07/2011

probably not.
one thing is for sure - college coaches sure are!  catch Bryant Gumbel's show on HBO this week - roundtable discussion and reports of all the money in NCAA sports and who gets it.  not one dime seems to have anything to do with education.