Chancellor: No need to modify gun laws

After Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot outside of a market in Arizona, there has been a big push for the relaxation of gun laws across the country. One of the issues that has arisen from this shooting has been whether or not firearms should be legal on college campuses.

While the heat has picked up following the Giffords’ shooting, those in favor of allowing guns on campus cite the incident at Virginia Tech, where a student shot and killed 32 students and faculty, while injuring 15 others. They say that if guns were legal on campus the students and faculty would have been able to defend themselves, and possibly saved some of the lives lost.

University Chancellor Dan Jones believes that Ole Miss is prepared for a situation, even without allowing guns on campus.

“We have a disaster management plan in place,” Jones said. “And we go through exercises on a regular basis for implementing that.

“We certainly hope and pray that we won’t have to go through anything like that, but that plan is reviewed on a regular basis. It includes communicating as quickly as feasible with current technology with all students and faculty and staff and so forth, but there are disaster management plans in place and we would execute those plans if needed.”

Thirty-eight states currently do not allow guns on college campuses, while 11 others leave it up to the school to decide. Currently Utah is the only state that allows students and professors to carry firearms with them on campus.

States such as Idaho, Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma, Florida, Colorado, South Carolina and Arizona are pushing bills that would allow students and professors to carry firearms on campus. Georgia, Texas, and Arizona are very close to legalizing guns on their college campuses.

Just last April, a lawsuit was filed in Colorado against the campus firearm ban. South Carolina recently edged closer to legalizing them on campuses by letting students check their weapons into the campus authorities and keep them in a locker at the police station.

Senior history major David McDowell believes that if other states make it legal for students to have firearms on campus, that it affects not just those students, but students everywhere else.

“I suppose if the University of Texas allows students to have guns on campus, that might affect my decision for grad school.” McDowell said. “Texas has a top 25 law school, but if at any point I may feel unsafe, that changes things. You don’t want to live in a neighborhood if you feel unsafe. If that becomes an issue that definitely changes things for everyone.”

McDowell doesn’t know why the University of Mississippi would need to legalize guns on campus.

“If someone is knocking on your dorm room door, and you think they are going to beat you up, and you meet them at the door with a .22, then you’ve got more problems,” McDowell said. “And you’re probably not at the University of Mississippi because we are a safe place like that. If things get more dangerous, I guess we’ll address that issue, but this is a safe campus. Why add the lethal ingredient?”

Mississippi is one of the 38 states that do not allow guns on college campuses. Mississippi law 97-37- 17 says that it is a felony to carry any weapon on a college campus, unless authorized, for example, university police. If caught with a gun on campus, the person could face a fine of up to $5,000 or three years in federal prison. Concealed weapons can be kept in vehicles.

Camille Lesseig, a junior history and Spanish major, believes that the current laws should remain the same.

“I think the current laws are fair,” Lesseig said. “I don’t have a problem with someone keeping a gun in their car, if they’re licensed to carry a gun that’s fine, they can have that gun.

“But I really don’t understand the rationale of carrying one on a school campus, the risk of someone carrying a gun far outweighs any kind of benefit you could have. There’s no legal use for a gun on campus, you can’t hunt, the self-defense issue is really kind of muted by the fact that we have a police force on campus, and ideally they would take care of any issues that you could come across.”

The problem does not just lie with students. In February of 2010, Amy Bishop opened fire during a Biological Sciences Department faculty meeting, killing three while injuring three others at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

The number of gun related incidents on college campuses continues to rise according to Security- Magazine.com. Since 2007, there have been 25 major incidents involving guns on college campuses in which someone was either seriously injured or killed.

Those 25 incidents, which include the shootings at Virginia Tech and UAH, have resulted in 64 deaths and 52 injuries.

William Shughart, F.A.P. Barnard distinguished professor of economics, believes that if guns were legalized on campus, there would be less chance of something like Virginia Tech, or UAH, happening.

“There is a substantial body of evidence from economic research that shows that violent crimes, murder, rape and robbery, rates are lower in states that allow people to carry concealed weapons on their person.” Shughart said. “The basic explanation is if you’re a criminal and you don’t know whether your victim is armed or not and could blow you away if he wants to, then you are less likely to commit the crime. Where the real significant reduction comes is rape, if women can carry guns in their handbag, and a criminal knows that there is a possibility that if they try to assault a woman there is a chance they’ll pull a gun on them, that deters crime.

“Criminals know that a school is a gun free zone, and that makes it an inviting target. We’ve been fortunate that it hasn’t been much of a problem in this state, but there have been lots of other events on campuses, where a graduate student has been mad at his dissertation advisor and comes in and blows him away, or confronts a faculty or staff member and to be knowingly unarmed makes you vulnerable.”

Junior biology major Hunter Morris can understand why we would want to allow guns on campus but also sees the risk as well.

“On the one side, you have the benefit of having guns on campus, because our students have the opportunity to protect themselves in situation like what happened at Virginia Tech.” Morris said. “Anybody who is going to want to come have some shootout and massacre is going to do it. If they really want to, they’ll figure out a way to make it happen. By saying we can’t have guns on campus, we’re not creating a lesser chance of that happening.

“However, when you think about how much alcohol is consumed on this campus, it seems to me that there would be a much greater risk of there being an alcohol related gun injury or death, than there would be if someone decided to come shoot up Ole Miss.”

While Mississippi has been relatively lucky when it comes to gun violence, we are still no stranger to the dangers that it can cause. Earlier this month a highschool student in Jackson brought a gun to school. While showing it off to his friends in the bathroom, he accidentally discharged it. Luckily, no one was hurt.

In 2009 a young woman brought a gun with her on a bus in Yazoo County, but the actions of a brave student kept her from being able to injure anyone on the bus.

Of the aforementioned 25 incidents, the University of Mississippi, which is consistently ranked in the top five safest campuses in the United States, does make an appearance on the list, with the fatal shooting of Ole Miss track star Rodney Lockhart at his apartment.

Chancellor Jones said he hopes that nothing changes.

“As an administrator I find the current gun law in Mississippi to be healthy and am glad to see that in place,” Jones said. “I’m not aware of any movement to change the law in Mississippi, and hopefully we won’t change it.””