By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Stuck eight paragraphs into a Stateline report on the effort to expand legal carry on college campuses is the cold truth nobody wants to acknowledge: “More than half of the states prohibit firearms on public colleges and universities.”
Yet, those prohibitions haven’t prevented the 17 fatal shootings on U.S. college campuses since 1966, which were found by Stateline research.
Stateline’s 1,815-word report notes how campus carry proposals “are part of a broader push by gun rights advocates to dismantle gun-free zones or other designated ‘sensitive places,’ such as schools, hospitals, places of worship or government buildings.” Engrossed Second Substitute Senate Bill 5098, which would have expanded such “sensitive place” designations in Washington state, died in committee when the legislature adjourned last week. It should be noted there was an exemption carved out for armed citizens with active concealed pistol licenses.
Four years ago, John Lott, head of the Crime Prevention Research Center, discussed a Rasmussen survey that revealed more likely voters supported the notion of armed teachers on campus than opposed it (49-37%), which was a stunning turnaround from a previous poll in 2018 which showed 43 percent approval and 48 percent opposed.
Lott, in separate research, said approximately 82 percent of mass shootings in the years 1998-2025 occurred in so-called “gun-free zones.” However, a report from Rand contends the data is “inconclusive.”
Still, Lott says “gun-free zones” are essentially magnets for deranged or dangerous people looking to cause mayhem and mass casualties.
Stateline reports that “at least six statehouses” this year considered legislation allowing campus carry. The named states are Florida, Louisiana, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. Predictably, there was support and opposition in each state, with supporters saying the change in rules would allow students and staff to fight back, while opponents said guns on campus would make things less safe.
A group called CCW Safe offers an overview of rules in each state. Another website, Armed Campuses, does likewise.
On the other side, a group calling itself Keep Guns Off Campus, is working to prevent regulations allowing campus carry.
The dilemma is not likely to be settled anytime soon, especially when so many in academia may not be inclined toward the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Second Amendment as protective of an individual right, when in the past it was considered only protective of a state’s right to organize a militia.
Change may be inevitable, but it still takes time.
