Some controversy has been raised over a gun bill that was passed in Ohio this week. The bill in question lessened the restrictions on concealed carry on college campuses, as well as in daycares. Police stations were also originally a part of the bill as well, but that was amended, due in part to concerns raised by the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police. All of these locations are considered to be “gun free zones”, but the new bill allows those with concealed carry permits to leave their weapons in their vehicles at colleges or daycares. The offense for carrying a gun into one of these places is now a misdemeanor, when it previously was a felony.
This recent event brings to question whether gun rights should extend to students on college campuses. Given the fact that mass shootings have been seemingly occurring more frequently, this bill raises the question of whether guns on campus is a good thing or a bad thing. Some people argue that more legal firearms mean that less mass shootings would occur. Other people argue that more guns equates to more gun violence, and the best way to reduce gun violence in places like schools is to not allow guns at all, in other words a gun free zone.
The logic behind barring concealed carry in such places is faulty. In fact, the logic behind gun free zones doesn’t make very much sense at all. The police officers who expressed skepticism over the bill in Ohio were concerned with the possibility of a shooting at a police station. Now think about that for a moment. Their concern is over someone intending to open fire in a police station, a building with cameras that is filled with fully trained and armed police officers who shoot to kill. Chances are that the individual in question wouldn’t have too much of a problem with a weapons charge, considering that they are willing to risk a murder charge. I assume that if he had the courage to open fire in a police station, the fact that concealed carry isn’t allowed inside the station probably wouldn’t mean much to him. Or take a college campus for instance. There have been shootings on college campuses before. Those shooters weren’t allowed to have guns on campus, but they were there to commit murder so getting charged for unlawfully carrying a firearm into a gun free zone presumably meant little to them.
The only consequence of barring concealed carry is that normal people, who aren’t looking to commit crimes, aren’t armed. I think this Ohio bill is in essence a good thing which will serve to benefit the public rather than harm the public. Barring legal firearms from certain locations does not help reduce gun violence. Rather it ensures that those looking to commit violence with a gun need not worry about opposition. How many times have we heard about shootings at schools and churches and other public places on the news, where the carnage goes on unabated until the shooter decides to stop, or until the point when the police finally manage to intervene? It has certainly been more times than I can count.
