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Don't pack heat on campus

May 3, 2008 12:15 am

ANATIONAL RIFLE Association representative spoke April 24 on the University of Mary Washington campus to a small group of students, suggesting that they and their fellow collegians would be safer if they carried concealed firearms to class. The NRA man was, of course, referencing last April's massacre at Virginia Tech.

That particular morning, 23-year-old Tech senior Cho Seung-Hui killed 32 and wounded 29, then slew himself, in an act of rage that still defies explanation. In the aftermath of that slaughter, many thought to themselves, "If only someone had stopped him sooner."

Had just one student or faculty member had a gun, some have said, Cho could have been stopped before his victims reached 62, saving perhaps dozens of lives. But others believe that an ensuing crossfire between Cho and armed campus civilians could have cost more lives.

This is not really a Second Amendment right-to-bear-arms issue; it is a need and safety issue. Do students really need to carry guns on campus for their own personal protection, and would the presence of more guns there make college a safer place for all?

Notwithstanding the Tech slaughter, the murder rate on college campuses is 0.28 per 100,000 people, far less than the overall U.S. murder rate of 5.5 per 100,000. This means that a non-student is at least 20 times more likely to be a murder victim than a student at college. Also, 70 percent of all murders are committed with a gun.

Within the last decade, the Harvard School of Public Health conducted a random sample of over 15,000 undergraduates from 130 four-year colleges. In that survey, 3.5 percent of the student respondents indicated they had a firearm at college. The study concluded that students with guns on campus were more likely to binge-drink, to drive drunk, and to suffer an injury severe enough to require medical attention.

Overall, the study found that students with guns on campus were more likely than those without guns to engage in activities that put them and others at risk.

Were all states to allow students and others to carry guns on campus, the danger for everyone at affected schools would likely increase. We know, for example, that the No. 2 cause of death for college students is suicide. Some 25,000 college students each year attempt suicide, and 1,100 succeed.

Further, 90 percent of individuals who attempt suicide with a firearm succeed. If we do the math, as college teaches us to do, the success rate of college suicide could increase dramatically if students were allowed to possess guns on campus.

If a student or a college worker is able to turn to a readily available gun as a means to resolve conflict rather than talking or walking away, the danger to all increases. Put yourself in the shoes of the campus police officer, administrator, instructor, or anyone else who must confront someone who could be carrying a gun under his sweatshirt. The tension automatically rises to a much higher level.

What about at Virginia Tech last April? Would armed students or professors have known who among those with guns drawn and firing was the real shooter who needed to be stopped? How should the police officers who flooded the campus looking for the shooter have responded when confronted by one or two or 50 students and others wielding guns as that mob ran helter-skelter across the campus quad? Could the situation, as terrible as it was, have become even more tragic had innocents shot other innocents in panic?

Our schools would be far safer if we worked to identify troubled students such as Cho and got them psychological assistance to help them develop appropriate anger-management and conflict-resolution skills. If necessary, an emotionally challenged student could be removed from campus.

Many people are fully capable of making good decisions concerning the firearm they carry on their persons, but the chances are really slim they would ever need to fire in self-defense or to save others. The statistics, even allowing for a once-every-40-years scenario such as Cho at Virginia Tech, hardly justify the extra danger created by allowing guns on campus.

Your Second Amendment rights are safe; just don't take your gun to school.

Clinton Van Zandt, a former FBI profiler who now serves as a crime-news analyst, lives in Spotsylvania County.