Gun control - Summaries II

ESL 5301-002 Summaries II –First Drafts
Gun Control / Campus Carry

1. News Summary

In this article, legislation in fifteen states may force colleges to allow people carry guns on campus. Texas has passed the law to allow concealed weapon on college campuses. In 2013, a survey showed that 80 percent of students felt unsafe if guns were allowed on campus, and more than 90 percent of faculty were against this idea. Supporters suggest that women can protect themselves if they carry guns on campus, since sexual assault has been a problem in colleges. However, in almost 33 percent of sexual assault cases, the victims’ intimate partners were the perpetrators. The solution of campus sexual assault requires involvements from different aspects, especially the improvement of women’s rights in communities, transparent case trial, etc. (Xiaomiao)

Guns on Campus’ Laws for Public Colleges and Universities, A Guide for Students and Parents, (2014). Armedcampuses. Retrieved on September 8, 2015 from
http://www.armedcampuses.org/

Kaufman, N. (2015, September 8). Concealed Carry on Colleges Campuses: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Huff Post. Retrieved on September 8, 2015 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-kaufman/concealed-carry-on-colleg_b_8093306.html

2. Summary II

According to Robbins’s (2015) news report, Whataburger decided to prohibit the open gun carry in its restaurants because open carry may make customers and employees feel uncomfortable. Forbidding open carry in a property is the owner’s right protected by the law. Members of the public have different reactions to Whataburger’s new policy. While Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense in America appreciates Whataburger’s decision, Open Carry Texas founder C. J. Grisham believes the open carry prohibition is inappropriate and Whataburger may lose gun holder customers. However, Texas Restaurant Association CEO Richie Jackson expects that many restaurants may follow Whataburger’s policy. (Ruizhi)

Reference

Robbins, S. (2015, Jul. 13). Whataburger takes a stand on open carry law. Texas News. Retrieved on September 8, 2015 from http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Whataburger-Takes-A-Stand-On-Open-Carry-Law-314334991.html

3. Summary

In the article “Student debate guns on campus-cons”, the authors Jenna Simsen and Lindsay Humphrey, discussed possible negative effects of campus carry in general and particularly in University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL). In their opinion, despite Texas Legislators’ point of view, guns will not make campus safer and consequently will make the students feel uncomfortable. In the authors` view, some occurrences like the shooting at Virginia Tech University cannot necessarily be avoided by giving licensed guns to the students as the shooter himself passed several security checks and had licensed firearms. Furthermore, the authors believe that alcohol consumption by the young students will increase the chance of shooting on campus; also viewers of a shooting incident could easily get hurt without having to do anything with the fight. Last, the authors bring up the fact that not only will students not feel safe with this law, but also the older students` kids as well as faculty`s kids, are not going to feel as safe as they used to, while their parents brought them on campus on different occasions. (S. Saravi)

Simsen, J and Humphrey, L (2015, September 8). Student debate guns on campus-cons. The Signal. Retrieved on September 8, 2015 from http://prtl.uhcl.edu/portal/page/portal/USN/TheSignal/Editorial?articleId=1286

4. Summary

According to the article “The truth about campus carry” by Madison Welch, safety of Texas Universities will not be endangered by campus carry. First of all, she refers to the fact that statistical investigation shows that people with licensed guns have committed fewer crimes. Furthermore, she states that improving university campus safety in order to allow the concealed licensed firearm is not completely necessary. She mentions that there are other places such as churches, malls, etc. which allow concealed licensed gun holders without these amount of safety upgrades; therefore, if it is not making any issues over there, why can it be a problem on campus? She believes that claimed costs associated with campus carry, are just political means to disapprove legislation and enacting this law. Furthermore, in the case of safety hazards caused by existence of guns in laboratories with chemical compounds, she believes that legal weapons will lead to less danger compared to illegal guns. (Soraya)

Welch, M. (2015, May 22). The truth about campus carry. TribTalk, Perspective on Texas. Retrieved on September 8, 2015 from http://www.tribtalk.org/2015/05/22/the-truth-about-campus-carry/

5. Article Summary

According to the article “Why I’ll soon have reason to fear my students“ by Joanna Cattanach, the law to allow students to have concealed handguns on the campus and even in the class will make teaching at a community college in Texas more challenging very soon. According to the author, she has had many students during her career as a community college teacher, who have experienced violence first hand (for example, a student who got shot during Christmas holidays or another student who had seen co-worker being shot “during a robbery at a fast-food restaurant”. According to her, a large number of her students don’t want to see guns on the campus. The author also mentions that the average student age on the campus where she works (North Lake College) is 27, meaning that most of the students in her classroom can have concealed guns on them during the class. According to the author, this will result in her classroom being an unsafe place, and every person in the classroom will be worried that “gun accidentally might go off when someone drops a backpack. Or that an unstable student might get mad”.

According to another article, “I support full concealed gun carry rights on DCCCD campuses” by Bill Metzger, which was written in response to the previous article, the author says that “Gun violence happens only in gun-free zones”. He mentions a few incidents involving educational campuses such as Columbine High School, Virginia Tech University and Sandy Hook Elementary. According to the author, these disasters could have been prevented if trained firearms owners were able to carry their weapons with them. The author also mentions that between the years 1996 and 2011, there were 30 incidents where a person with a permit to carry a gun committed homicide. He also mentions that in this 15-year period, “Nearly 4.3 million Texans applied for concealed carry licenses”. (Pouria)

Cattanach, J. (2015, August 18). Why I’ll soon have reason to fear my students. The Dallas Morning News, Retrieved on September 8, 2015 from
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latest-columns/20150818-joanna-cattanach-why-ill-soon-have-reason-to-fear-my-students.ece

Metzger, B. (2015, August 25). I support full concealed gun carry rights on DCCCD campuses. The Dallas Morning News, Retrieved on September 8, 2015 from
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latest-columns/20150825-an-armed-student-body-is-a-safer-one.ece

6. Summary

In the first article, Nancy talked about different reasons about supporting the argument that carry concealed weapons on campus and reasons to disagree this proposal. The author introduced the survey of students and professors' feelings on this argument. In the survey, 80% of students and nine of ten faculty members thought it would not be safe if law allows guns can be carried on campus. For the supporters, they believed that victims can protect themselves if they are in danger in case of sexual assault and it would cost millions of dollars in building protective system on campus which would be a heavy budget for public colleges and universities. However, Nancy pointed out that the reason for sexual assault is students involved in alcohol and the carrying of guns would result in more suicides and even homicides.

In the second article, the author introduced the fact that there were several states have been allowed carrying guns on campus for many years, such as Colorado for 12 years. (Lu)

Reference

Kaufman, N.K. (2015, September 8th). Concealed Carry on Colleges Campuses: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Retrieved on September 8, 2015 from
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-kaufman/concealed-carry-on-colleg_b_8093306.html

7. Summary

Teresa Welsh, in her article “Should the Colorado theater shooting spur more gun control?”, introduces the shooting accident in the Colorado Theater where 12 people were murdered. Also, she mentions another shooting massacre in Colorado, called “Columbine High School Massacre”, in 1999. Two students killed a teacher and 12 students and finally committed suicide. Obama said that the government would take care of injured people and punish the killer while the Brady Campaign made a statement to oppose it. Citizens felt angry about government letting guns be owned by dangerous people and called for gun laws changing. Also, opponents of gun control laws considered that people should have guns to defend themselves, since murderers would still initiate a crime under the laws. (Kai)

Reference:

Welsh, T. (2012, July 20). Should the Colorado theater shooting spur more gun control? U.S. News. Retrieved on September 8, 2015 from http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2012/07/20/should-the-colorado-theater-shooting-spur-more-gun-control

8. Summary #2

According to Nancy Kaufman in Concealed carry on colleges campuses: what could possibly go wrong? By next year, individuals will be able to carry guns in colleges and universities after the campus carry law has been passed in 15 states with Texas one of them. According to survey that happened in 2013, 80 percent of students and 9 out of ten of faculty are against the campus carry law because it will lead to unsafe environment. The National Rifle Association supports this law as a solution for campus sexual violence. However, adding guns with sexual assault in campus will lead to more problems. In addition to that universities will need more money for security reasons, victims in sexual assault might use guns with attackers. Also, there is a high chance that attackers will grab guns from victims. Students could also kill any one trying to rape them. (Ebtehal)

Reference

Kaufman, N. (2015, September 8). Concealed carry on colleges campuses: what could possibly go wrong? Huffington Post. Retrieved on September 8, 2015 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-kaufman/concealed-carry-on-colleg_b_8093306.html