Guns on Campus?

A few years ago, while I was doing my Bachelors, I remember the uproar over the possibility of campus police carrying handguns in an attempt to up security. Now I don't much care for guns, no matter whose hands they are in and thought asking for more guns on what is a relatively peaceful, non-violent campus was asking for trouble. [Guns are the reason I don't shop at Walmart by the way. I refuse to buy products from a store that sells guns in some states. There are, of course, many reasons not to shop at Walmart, this is my primary motivator effectively defusing the cheaper costs which are so attractive to a student.]

Anyways, the reason I thought of this suddenly was because I read an article about the rise in Indian student deaths across US campuses. The material of the article contained a reference to a group called "Students for Concealed Carry on Campus." Said group apparently advocates for the right of licensed individuals to carry concealed weapons on college campuses. Wait a second, What?!!! That was my reaction reading this titbit. On second thought, it didn't really surprise me given the vast network of the NRA.

I'm struck by the asinine nature of such advocacy. I'm not going to go into numbers of how many people die yearly in accidental gun deaths etc etc. All I'm going to say is, how is this going to fix things? In the event that some crazed nutter, carries a gun onto campus and starts indiscriminately shooting people, will the aforementioned 'licensed individuals' be there on hand like superheroes in a comic? Moreover, will they be sharp shooters immediately able to take out the killer? What will they do that a policeman cannot? If we change the scenario to a more intimate threat, i.e. that a student is accosted in a dark alley or some such circumstance, do you really think having a gun on hand is necessarily going to pull things back in your favour? Likely that both victim and offender die or get injured.

By allowing guns on campus, we are allowing a lot of trigger-happy folks to carry weapons on campuses and ultimately make campuses much more dangerous. Instead, please just be careful security-wise. Don't wander around alone in the middle of the night, stick to crowded areas etc etc. Unfortunately, there's not much to do in cases of the 'killer on a rampage' situation. But lets not make it easier to happen?