Journal-News.com

OXFORD — A few months after the shootings at Virginia Tech and weeks after shootings at Delaware State, the issue of campus safety is never really far from students' minds, especially now that Miami University has implemented its text message alert system. One thing that students need to be talking more about, however, is allowing legal guns on campus.

No, I'm not crazy. Our great state issues licenses to carry a concealed weapon almost every day, to the tune of about 100,000 in the past three years. These 100,000 citizens are at least 21 (so there go most freshmen, sophomores and some juniors), have passed a state and federal background check and have completed a 12-hour course on gun safety (including two hours of live fire training). They can carry a loaded gun in banks (you know, the places that store a lot of money), supermarkets, movie theaters, some restaurants and even uptown Oxford.

There are some restrictions, of course. For example, you can't just waltz into a police station with a gun, nor can you carry a concealed gun into bars or restaurants that serve alcohol. Drinking and even holding a gun can land you up to six months in jail. You can't just draw your gun on a whim, either, you can't be the one who instigated an incident, you have to have a reasonable fear of severe bodily injury or death, and you have to make some effort to retreat.

What's my point? Starting Oct. 22, I, — along with more than 350 students at Miami University and at universities across the country — will wear an empty holster to class to show that citizens with their concealed handgun licenses are reduced to merely an empty holster once they reach campus.

Just bear with me for a moment. Think about all of the recent crimes that have been committed on or near campus: assaults, stabbings, a string of rapes last year. A concealed handgun could have stopped a lot of these crimes from happening. The argument that you should learn self-defense doesn't fly, as was the case when a student was cut while trying to wrestle a knife out of someone's hand. A gun would have tilted the odds in his favor, however.

Ladies, think of the protection you can wield when some creepy guy starts following you to your dorm. I guarantee he's going to have a more challenging time assaulting you if he's staring down the barrel of a Glock.

If I'm not making a convincing enough argument, then just take a look at Utah. Thanks to the Utah Supreme Court, all — every single one — of Utah's public universities have to allow licensed individuals to carry on campus. Since then, there hasn't been a single school shooting. Students there aren't getting drunk and shooting each other; the streets aren't reminiscent of the OK Corral; and people aren't turning guns against themselves, at least not more than they might have been before.

Assault, rape, DUI, theft — all of these are serious crimes, but that hasn't stopped a whole lot of people if you pay attention to the campus crime alerts. Personally, I say it's time for the law to be changed to allow licensed individuals the right to carry on campus. Let Utah universities be a shining example. If it's OK there and in thousands of businesses in Ohio, why can't it be OK on campus?

Stephen Feltoon

is

a psychology major and current

s

t

udent

l

e

ader for Students for Concealed Carry on Campus at Miami University.