Concealed carry advocate says college students should be allowed to conceal and carry
By Emily Mullin
Athens NEWS Campus Reporter
April 28, 2008
A representative of the national organization, Students for Concealed Carry on Campus (SCCC), visited Ohio University Thursday in support of allowing licensed individuals to carry concealed firearms on college campuses.
The event was sponsored by the OU Second Amendment Club as a part of a week-long protest against statutes in Ohio and other states that may allow concealed carry, but not on college and university campuses. Students across the country wore empty holsters to class last week to express their desire to have the right to bring concealed weapons to class.
Stephen Feltoon, a 2007 graduate of Miami University of Ohio and the Midwest regional director for SCCC, spoke at the event. The organization, which puts its membership at 29,000, was created as a direct result of the shooting at Virginia Tech last year.
Feltoon, who identifies himself as a liberal Democrat, said the aim of the group is simple: Let individuals with a valid handgun carry a concealed weapon on campus.
Current Ohio law explicitly bans concealed carry on campus in most cases. Provisions of the law allow a concealed weapon on campus only if a person has a valid license and the gun is locked in the car or a person is in the immediate process of locking it in one’s car. But OU policy prohibits all conceal weapons on school premises.
A person attempting to carry a concealed weapon and caught doing so on a college or university campus in the state of Ohio could be arrested for “inducing panic,” Feltoon said.
Utah is the only state whose laws explicitly allow concealed carry on campuses. Some states allow individual colleges and universities to make the decision through school policy. So far, 11 colleges and universities in the United States allow concealed carry on campus.
Feltoon reported that since adopting looser concealed-carry laws, no violent incidents involving a concealed firearm have occurred at those institutions.
More than a dozen states, including Ohio, have recently introduced legislation that would allow concealed carry on campus. Ohio Senate Bill 318 would permit licensees to carry unloaded and cased handguns into colleges, churches, daycares and other public buildings currently prohibited.
Although opponents of concealed carry on campus question whether students or faculty members carrying a concealed firearm would help reduce the effects of a campus shooting, Feltoon acknowledged that these types of incidents are “few and far between.”
The purpose of the group, he explained, isn’t about stopping campus shootings. Rather, supporters of concealed carry on campus think a person who’s legally armed drastically reduces the risks of being a victim of murder, rape, assault and other violent crimes. “These are the crimes that make licensees want to carry [a concealed weapon],” Feltoon said.
Feltoon attempted to counter popular arguments against concealed carry on campus. Opponents, for example, maintain that allowing firearms on school grounds would increase the rate of violent crime since the college lifestyle is often associated with alcohol and drug abuse. Combining alcohol and guns, opponents reason, just doesn’t make sense.
The SCCC representative, however, noted that it’s illegal for a licensee to be in possession of a firearm while under the influence in any state that provides for legalized concealed carry.
Feltoon disputed the idea that an increase in crime would result from college students carrying concealed weapons. In conceal-carry states, it’s legal for a licensee to carry a concealed firearm into almost any public place such as shopping malls and office buildings, just not on college and university campuses.
“It’s hypocritical to say that you can bring a gun into a 300-person movie theater but not a 300-person lecture hall,” Feltoon said.
Still, many challenge the idea of bringing guns onto college campuses, saying they’d feel less safe if they knew students and faculty were carrying concealed weapons, especially if someone were mentally unstable.
Feltoon said this is doubtful because of the restrictions placed on those wanting to obtain a concealed-carry license.
A person in Ohio wishing to obtain a concealed-carry permit must first pass a background test and cannot have a prior criminal record. He or she must also have completed a training course and pay a license fee. Licensees only make up about 1 percent of the entire population, Feltoon said.
He argued that the choice to carry a concealed weapon is just another form of self-defense and not due to excessive paranoia or fear.
“I’d like to be able to defend myself from danger,” he said.
Junior William Loar, president of the OU Second Amendment Club, said Feltoon presented some valid arguments but expressed disappointment that no opponents of concealed carry on campus attended the speech.
“I think it would have been best to hear from both sides of the issue,” he said.
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