Not quite finished yet-

Introduction

News of a school shooting turns a burning fire inside a lot of people, but the reason is different depending on the person. Some are fueled by the sorrow and hatred towards guns which are to blame for the incident. Then there are the few that see this as a reason to fight back. Gun control has been a heated topic for awhile now, ranging from simply allowing people to exercise their right to self defense, carrying guns in public or on a school campus. You always hear about the worst possible happening when it comes to guns and schools, like Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook elementary where some of the worst cases took place. What you usually don’t hear though, are the instances of where a person that’s able to legally carry, had stopped a shooting, assault or any other kind of crime from taking place before it had time to escalate. This paper will look into the issue of guns on campus, specifically allowing teachers, students or both the ability to carry a gun on college/university campuses. The question always rises that allowing students to carry increases the chance of more violent and more frequent accidents when they are frustrated or stressed out. That suicide and homicide rates will spike across the country on campuses. And following that, what process would students have to go through to be allowed to carry a gun, and would this mean any and all students would start to carry? One of the main reasons that people want to promote guns on campus, is that they already are allowed to carry a concealed weapon in their state, and want to exercise their right where they go, even if it’s on campus in case the need to defend themselves or others comes up.

Review of Literature

A article,SCHOOL SHOOTINGS AND THE LEGISLATIVE PUSH TO ARM TEACHERS, by Allen Rostron covers the thoughts and proposals of certain groups like the NRA and state legislatures. The proposals that were discussed covered the ideas of armed sentinels that would guard schools after going through a training program. And in some states this has passed through the legislators but is not forced.

A chart from the University of Virginia provides a quick look at the kinds of weapons that were found in violation of their rules in between the years 2010 and 2011. Showing that only 25 guns were violating their rules, and almost 1500 knives/razors/blades were found.

A picture that asks a simple question towards the issue of guns on campus, asking which place would a shooter target? An armed campus or a gun free zone?.

An article by Robert Birnbaun, from Change: the magazine of higher learning, discussed both sides of the argument on guns on campus, and providing quotes and headlines from newspapers and the American Association of state colleges. Stats on shootings provided by the FBI are mentioned, one for example stated that almost 60% of fatal incidents involved someone that used to know the assailant

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Project Timeline

This week I’m going to continue to look for two more scholarly articles that are of at least 8 pages using the libraries online databases. Next week I’m planning on doing an outline for at least the first few pages so I can get my subpoints down and put down what I know or have learned about each one and my thoughts about them. Following that I’m looking to interview some people to get their opinions about allowing guns on campus and why they have taken that side.