Shootings on college campuses have become more common in recent years and most lawmakers and Americans agree that something needs to be done to prevent these tragedies from happening. What is not clear is which direction campuses – and the country – should move towards: more gun control laws and designated “gun-free zones,” or fewer restrictions on gun rights for students and law-abiding citizens?
The campus gun-free zone debate was raised again after the shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon on Thursday that left 10 dead and another 7 people injured.
According to Everytown for Gun Safety, a group that tracks school shootings and advocates for stricter gun control measures, there have been 17 shootings on college campuses this year, though Umpqua was the first mass shooting. According to the group’s report, there were 31 total shootings on college campuses in 2014.
Data from the U.S. Department of Education also showed a rise in campus shootings. In 2013, which was the last year data was available, 23 people were killed on college campuses.
Some conservatives like Florida State Rep. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, who has filed a bill to allow concealed weapons on college campuses, blame school shootings on “gun-free zones.”
“I don’t know how many innocent people have to die before our college presidents and our university presidents realize that having gun-free zones is not protecting our students and faculty,” Steube told ABC Action News. “This college [Umpqua Community College] is another example of a gun-free zone, where a single lone shooter walked on campus and law-abiding citizens had no ability to defend themselves whatsoever.”
Oregon is one of seven states, which does, in fact, allow the concealed carry of weapons on public college campuses, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
However, a policy enforced by the Oregon State Board of Education, which oversees many of the state’s public universities, bans those with concealed carry permits from bringing guns into university buildings.
In a joint statement following the shooting, the American Association of Community Colleges and the Association of Community College Trustees said that college campuses are particularly vulnerable to gun violence.
“While campus safety is of the utmost priority, due to their open nature, college and university campuses are susceptible to these types of events,” the organizations wrote.
President Obama addressed the tragedy with frustration on Thursday, and said that unfortunately, events like this have become routine.
“Our thoughts and prayers are not enough,” he said in a statement. “It’s not enough. It does not capture the heartache and grief and anger that we should feel, and it does nothing to prevent this carnage from being inflicted someplace else in America — next week, or a couple months from now.”
The president urged Americans, regardless of political party, to consider each candidate’s stance on gun control when they vote.
Late Thursday, former Arkansas governor and current Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee criticized Obama for politicizing the tragedy to advance his own agenda on guns.
“For this president to make a political pronouncement is at best premature and at worst ignorantly inflammatory,” Huckabee wrote in a Facebook post. “Obama can shamelessly try and exploit any tragedy he wants, but it’s clear that gun-free zones are sitting duck zones.”
