On Monday, days after reports of a possible gunman at Virginia Tech shook the campus and revived fears of the 2007 attack, an organization that promotes the right of licensed gun owners to carry concealed firearms on college campuses brought together a number of speakers for a discussion here on the issues of gun control and Second Amendment rights.
The discussion was part of the second national conference of the group Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, which was held at the National Press Club and supported by the Second Amendment Foundation.
Students for Concealed Carry on Campus was founded shortly after the 2007 attack at Virginia Tech, in which a gunman killed 32 people before taking his own life, and leaders of the organization said they have made progress since then in their efforts to change attitudes about guns on campuses.
According to the president of the organization, Daniel Crocker, over the last three years, the number of colleges that permit people to carry concealed weapons on their grounds has doubled, and victories in legislatures and the courts have chipped away at gun bans in states like Colorado and Wisconsin.
While most speakers at the event were supportive of the right to possess firearms on university grounds, the organization sought to present a “full picture of the campus-carry debate,” according to Mr. Crocker.
The gathering featured a debate between the conservative academic John R. Lott and Colin Goddard, a survivor of the Virginia Tech slayings who is now assistant director of legislative affairs for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
Mr. Lott said it is important to focus on the net effect of concealed guns in reducing campus attacks. Citing murder-rate statistics from Washington, D.C., and Chicago, two cities where Supreme Court decisions have overturned broad restrictions on gun ownership, he maintained that gun bans do not correspond to a lower incidence of violent crime, and he argued that traditional law-enforcement techniques do not deter individuals from committing multiple-victim public shootings.
“Rather than repelling crime by having these bans, you actually make it more attractive for criminals to commit these crimes because they have less to worry about,” he said.
Mr. Goddard, who was shot four times during the Virginia Tech attack when he was a senior at the university, reflected on that experience and warned against limiting violence prevention to the “last possible second,” when an attack is occurring.
Recounting the events of that day in 2007, Mr. Goddard told the audience that when the gunman burst into his classroom, shock prevented him from seeing the situation clearly. Not all students that day were “sitting ducks,” though, he said.
Hypothetical statements implying that guns might have lowered the death toll were “offensive,” Mr. Goddard said. Instead of pinpointing the moment when violence starts, he said, “we need to broaden our perspective, we need to look past that last second ... when we could have intervened.” He suggested that preventive measures, such as stricter licensing requirements, mental-health checks, and improved campus security and emergency planning, would be a more effective approach.
“We should be proactive, not reactive,” he said.
While the movement to legalize concealed carry has become more organized in recent years and has seen some successes, 15 states have defeated legislation that would have restricted the rights of colleges to ban guns on their campuses, and several speakers spoke of the hurdles that advocates of concealed carry face going forward.
James Purtilo, a professor of computer science at the University of Maryland, said campus-carry legislation would be a “hard sell,” but that with appropriate, focused message campaigns, gun advocates can win public favor.
Erik Simpson, a state legislator from Idaho, advised students in the audience to “expect that the university administration will be your biggest opponents, but encourage your students and faculty to support your side.”
Alan Gura, a prominent constitutional lawyer who helped win the landmark cases dealing with Second Amendment rights in Washington and Chicago, said that pro-gun advocates must concentrate on winning a foundation of support for concealed carry more broadly before tackling the issue of gun possession on college campuses, which have been deemed “sensitive places” where gun bans have been upheld. “Before we litigate the issue of sensitive places,” he said, “we still have to litigate the issue whether you have a right to carry a weapon outside the home at all.”
“This fight is not going to be easy,” said Glen Caroline, the legislative director of the National Rifle Association who gave the keynote at the conference. It will require, he said, a concerted effort between national pro-gun groups like the NRA, and continuous engagement on and off college campuses. “We are training a new tier of grassroots activists who are willing to speak up and get involved.”
