Concealed Carry Coming to Colleges, but Students are Divided
Posted by jhingarat21 on 12th Oct 2015
The shooting at Oregon’s Umpqua Community College brings the topic of guns on campus to the forefront.
Under Kansas law, starting July 1st, 2017, people will be able to carry concealed guns into buildings on public college campuses if there is not adequate security in the building. However, students are divided about the change.
On WSU’s campus, building doors have signs that clearly ban concealed firearms. Currently, according to the Kansas Board of Regents’ policy, “the campus of each state university shall be weapons-free.”
But the law mandating that policy is set to expire in July 1, 2017 and people would be able to carry concealed guns into buildings on campus.
In a few weeks, the student advisory committee for the Kansas Board of Regents will be sending out a survey to students state-wide, to gather student opinions on the upcoming change.
Wichita State’s student body president says the goal is to see if there’s a majority in how students, state-wide, feel about allowing concealed carry on campuses, and to pass that information on to lawmakers.
“Students don’t implement their voices as often as they should, and that’s because students don’t realize how much power that they have,” said Joseph Shepard, WSU’s student body president.
“I think it’ll be a good idea because even though the university has a great police force and great security measures in place, there’s always uncertanties you cannot protect from,” said Sam Atchity, freshman at WSU.
The student advisory committee hopes to have survey results by the end of the semester.
