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Students at more than 125 universities and colleges participated in a demonstration known as the "empty holster" protest last week, in which a number of participants strapped empty gun holsters to their waists to protest laws that prohibit carrying concealed weapons on campus.
Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, a national organization with approximately 7,000 members, which was created in the aftermath of the tragedy at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, initiated and organized the protest.
Nathaniel Sheetz, the campus leader for the Pennsylvania State University protest, said students should not have to wait for police to respond to a crime.
"The main thing that's motivating me is personal responsibility," Sheetz said. "I can't expect the police to protect me from assault, robbery, et cetera. The police will show up 10 minutes later if I'm lucky and take a report. The moment where I actually needed help is gone by the time they get there. The only person that can protect me is me."
He said last week's protest did not illicit a response from Penn State's administration.
"The protest itself was low-key - all it involved were students, staff and faculty all on their way to class as a normal daily routine," Sheetz said. "It wasn't like we screamed and yelled for an hour. The administration in general does not pay that much attention to protests. There have been a number, so it's not surprising to me that the university hasn't issued an official response."
W. Scott Lewis, media coordinator for Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, said he feels the facts are on his side and the legalization of guns on campus would not promote aggression and violence on campus, but would rather give students a way to protect themselves.
"We're not about instilling fear in people," Lewis said. "If I ever found myself in a situation, the concealed handgun evens the odds. Students and faculty would have a way to defend themselves. Universities don't realize that they're prohibiting guns from people who want to follow the rules, not the ones who want to start trouble. If you look at Virginia Tech, the one who had the advantage over anyone else, Cho [Seung Hui], was not concerned about following the rules."
He said the opposition believes violence will increase as a result of the legalization of concealed weapons on college campuses and that there is a dramatized misconception of possible outcomes.
"Life is not a John Woo movie," Lewis said. "In the real world, two people shoot each other and within 10 seconds one of them is going to go down. It won't last more that a few seconds. An execution style is what happened at Virginia Tech, and if people had a way to even the odds, lives would have been saved." University of Delaware junior Karen Monono said gun owners with psychological issues might be a cause for concern.
"Even if you know how to use a gun, there might still be the chance that you get really mad and you use it without meaning to," Monono said.
Junior Lorraine Makone said she believes the legalization of guns would promote a militant campus.
"Personally, I don't think that should be allowed at all," Makone said. "I understand in one aspect the Virginia Tech is going through a rough time - it's a scary place and you want to defend yourself, but there are better ways that the university can intercept and work to better protect and hear their students."
She said adding alcohol to the equation would create further problems.
"As an RA, I see many level-headed students on campus who are extremely different when under the influence of alcohol. How do I know that whoever has a gun on campus will use it in a negative way, especially if they are not in the right state of mind? This is not the way to solve things at all."
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