Joshua Urteaga
Rhetoric 306
November 24, 2016
An opinion article addressing students who support campus carry; to be published in the Daily Texan . Daily Texan readers are generally aware concealed carry on college campuses, but have many different opinions about it. Many don?t know how many people are affected by campus carry.
Armed Education: Is Campus Carry the Answer?
In recent years, gun violence has become an increasingly controversial topic. There are occasionally news stories about how someone was shot and killed, or news about a mass shooting. Statistics from the website Gun Violence Archive show that in 2016 so far, there have been 13,288 deaths caused by gun violence, 27,376 injuries, and 348 mass shootings, …show more content…
Although this is true, it doesn?t change the fact that there are have been reports of people with concealed carry stopping mass shootings, as pointed out in my discussion of a few situations in which a person with concealed carry stopped mass shootings, and that by having their gun, they were able to save many lives. Many people also claim that against campus carry claim that allowing campus carry would actually lead to an increase in gun violence, and rape such as in Evan Defilippis and Devin Hughes? article ?The Numbers on Arming College Students Show Risks Outweigh Benefits.? In his article, he claims that guns don?t stop sexual assaults, saying that ?the numbers tell a different story. A recent study by David Hemenway of Harvard examined data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and found that women almost never successfully fend off a would-be rapist with a firearm. Of the more than 300 cases of sexual assault in the NCVS data from 2007-11, not one was stopped by a firearm.? (Par. 5). However, in David Kopel?s article ?Guns on university campuses: The Colorado Experience? there is a section that refutes the prior claim, describing a study conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau that interviews thousands of people annually, for the NCVS, found that In 1992-2002, of the 2,000 persons interviewed who had been victims of rape and sexual assault, 26 said that they used a weapon to defend themselves. In all 26 of these cases, the rape wasn?t completed, and none of the victims suffered injury after she deployed her weapon. Professor Gary Kleck, author of the mentioned study conducted another broader study examining the NCVS data, he found that out ?of 27,595 attempted violent crimes and 16 types of protective actions, Kleck found?that resisting with a gun greatly lowered the risk of the victim being injured, or of the crime being completed? (Par.