Should Gun Control Be Allowed With Legal Concealed Carry Weapons On Their Respective Campuses?

In order to ensure the safety of all students and faculty on campus, as advisors to the governor we are proposing legislation to allow individuals with legal concealed carry permits to carry weapons on their respective campuses. By passing this legislation the people that will be most affected by these changes is the students and faculty of the schools. The following policy is to ensure the safety of everyone involved in academia so that they can have a safe educational experience. To make sure that the policy is effectively executed it is dependent upon the cooperation of the schools administration and police department. In order to implement these changes there must be a change in the current Tennessee code annotated section 39-17-1309 (TCA 39-17-1309). The primary goal for allowing guns on college campuses is that individuals have the means to protect themselves in the case of an active shooter on campus. It has been shown that gun-free zones do not have the intended effect that is wanted and that by having them it is just an invitation for sick people to perform their atrocities and leave innocent victims with no way of defending themselves. (Teeple, Thompson, & Price, 2012) The presence of firearms carried by law abiding citizens has been shown to decrease crime in the area that they were allowed to be. One study has shown that, “Allowing citizens without criminal records or histories of significant mental illness to carry concealed handguns deters violent crimes.”