Concealed Carry Weapons On Campus: Ethnography Research

Concealed Carry Weapons on Campus: Ethnography Project

Over the course of 20 years, there have been numerous school shootings, which has resulted in thousands of lives ending to quickly. Which leads me to my central focus of this ethnography project. I wanted to determine how students across the country attending different universities felt about implementing a safety course, which will allow a student the ability to conceal carry a firearm on campus. In the criminal justice field, individuals are more probable to carry some type of firearm. If they do not carry one on a systematic bases, they most likely come across them on a regular bases. So most students like myself who are Criminal Justice majors are pro-gun. So during my interview, the
It still does not determine how each student feels about CC a firearm on campus. Though both Aaron, and Taylor attend small universities and feel safe on their campuses. They still feel students who have a concealed carry weapons license (CCW) should be allowed to carry their firearm on campus. This was the next question I wanted to answer. Taylor Beavers who was a 2015 graduate of Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania with a degree in Physical Training (PT), also agrees with being authorized to CC a weapon on campus if one possesses the licenses to do so. SPC Beavers is also an Army veteran, and she feels that being in the Army has an encouragement in why she would support the idea of allowing conceal carry on campus. Slippery Rock University is also known as SRU, has about 10,000 students enrolled in their institution. Compared to Taylor and Aaron’s college it is rather big. So one can see that size really does not matter in this case. There was one response out of all my interviews that raised a red flag. Hannah Burras a Nursing major at The University of Toledo was not on board for carrying a firearm on campus. “I do not feel that students should be allowed to carry a firearm on campus... I would never even think of taking a gun into an area that was set up for educational purposes.” Hannah shocked me with this response because she also has her CCW license, yet
With all the college shootings, all the students that I had interviewed felt that they would be significantly safer if they had the ability to protect themselves if this horrible event were to ever take place on their own campus. Aaron felt that knowing you have the ability to protect yourself in this event is reassuring. Though most of the interviewees have campus police, a lot of them feel that sometimes calling for help won't make it in time to save their lives. No one should have the fear of not having the ability to defend him or her, especially in a life or death situation. Taylor Winand had the best response when it came to this situation. “If an active shooter was in the same room you were, calling the campus police would be like bring a knife to a gun fight.” There is so much information gathered from these interviews, it was