We’re not ready for concealed carry

Should students be allowed to carry weapons on campus even if they are concealed? The debate about gun rights has become particularly heated during the past month, and the argument has reached Bloomington.

Students for Concealed Carry on Campus is looking to change the culture around guns by promoting education.

As it currently stands, the Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities and Conduct strictly prohibits the possession of any weapon on any University property, concealed or not. Students support such a regulation — in a poll conducted on idsnews.com of more than 350 students, nearly 75 percent did not want concealed weapons on campus.

So, should students be allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus? On one hand, it is a person’s right to bear arms and protect themselves. It’s in our Constitution. This is America, isn’t it? 

And even though the National Rifle Association is proposing a plan with the same plot line as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Kindergarten Cop,” that movie was pretty darn successful. Although the IDS editorial staff wouldn’t mind 100,000 Arnold Schwarzeneggers protecting this country’s schools, others may object to such a notion. So, where can we find a happy medium?

It is our right as Americans to bear arms. We are free to protect ourselves. But not everyone in this country should be given a gun — they aren’t food stamps. Owning a gun must come with a requirement of responsibility and maturity that should not be compromised. Recently, it seems this country has done just that.

Obviously this begs a slew of questions. Who should we allow to own guns? What types of guns should we allow? How can we make sure these individuals are fully capable of using them in a proper manner? How can we effectively minimize victims as a result of this right?

It is very clear America has the loosest gun control laws of all developed countries, and statistics back that. We have simply failed to limit the amount of guns we hand out, as well as who we allow to own them.

The United States has the most firearms by far of any country in both absolute and relative terms, with 270 million units in circulation and 88.8 firearms per 100 people, according to data compiled in 2012 from multiple institutions by the Guardian.

According to the same study, U.S. firearm-related homicides accounted for more than 85 percent of firearm homicides occurring in developed countries in 2011, while the U.S. population makes up only about a third of the developed world.

Any attempt to hide the epidemic nature of U.S. gun crime either ignores our status as a developed country or ignores the facts altogether.

Should students be allowed to carry concealed weapons? As a country, we have a much bigger issue at hand that needs to be dealt with first. Until we as a nation really clamp down on gun rights, on whom is allowed to carry a gun, concealed gun rights should not even be discussed.