Editorial: Allow concealed carry

February 16, 2008
Dover-New Philadelphia Times-Reporter

It’s time we allow concealed carry on America’s university campuses.

Maybe an armed, well-trained professor might have been able to stop the graduate student who went on a shooting rampage Thursday in a Northern Illinois University lecture hall, killing six and wounded 15 before turning the gun on himself.

And maybe someone with a weapon could have stopped the massacre at Virginia Tech last year that left 32 students and teachers dead.

We’ll never know.

As a society, we must have a serious screw loose when these horrific shooting rampages keep happening again and again. Something must be done to make our campuses safe once more.

Granting law-abiding handgun license holders the right to take their weapons onto college and university campuses is one thing we should do.

According to Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, numerous studies show that people with concealed handgun license permits are five times less likely to commit violent crimes than non-license holders.

We can’t see any reason for continuing the ban. Students and university employees need to feel safe again.

Legislatures – including Ohio’s – should lift the ban at all public universities. That would forestall any liability concerns on the part of university officials.

The ban needs to be lifted now – before another shooting rampage occurs.

Click here for the editorial from the New Philadelphia Times-Reporter.