There are two schools of thought concerning handguns on school campuses. One is to ban guns everywhere and everyone will be safe. The bill to allow handguns died in committee on April 1.
On ETSU’s campus, Jack Cotrel, director of Public Safety, said he believes that Knoxville Rep. Stacey Camfield’s proposal to allow qualified faculty and staff with a carry permit to carry weapons on campus is “a bad bill.”
Cotrel is quoted in the April 1 Johnson City Press, saying, “We simply don’t think it’s good for college campuses. Our objective is to eliminate a threat in a shooting situation, any shooting situation. And if we go into a situation and there’s five or six people with guns, you don’t have time to say, ‘Hey, do you work here?'”
Really, that is his argument? When a law officer rolls up on a situation where there is gunfire are they really going to check and see if the citizens ready to defend themselves are faculty or staff? Is that their top priority in an emergency situation?
Let’s look at the results of two infamous university shootings.
January 16, 2002: A despondent student who had dropped out of the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Va., came onto the campus with a handgun. He shot and killed two faculty members and a student as well as wounding three others.
Nigerian Peter Odighizuwa was challenged and subdued within minutes by three students who were off-duty policemen. Two of these men went independently to their cars to retrieve their personal firearms, approached Odighizuwa and ordered him to drop his weapon. The third cop helped tackle and subdue Odighizuwa, having him in handcuffs before the first police car arrived.
April 16, 2007: After killing two students in West Ambler Johnson dormitory on the campus of Virginia Tech, Seung-Hui Cho, a South Korean student with a long history of mental problems, went into Norris Hall a few hours later and began a mass murder spree that claimed the lives of 30 more students and faculty and wounded 17.
In a mad rush of god-like power, he went from classroom to classroom unchallenged. He shot and killed several teachers and students through the doors they were desperately trying to barricade.The police were called but the outside doors were chained by Cho and they could not get in.
I understand the futility of the ‘what if’ argument, but allow me brief license to speculate. Virginia Tech had a handgun ban. Even if someone had the legal privilege of possessing a concealed weapon they could not legally carry it on campus.
If someone, faculty, staff or even a student in Norris Hall that morning was a legally registered and trained holder of a handgun carry permit and had shot or openly challenged Cho, how many lives could have been saved? If they had done nothing else but pop off a few rounds, would Cho have figured his brief moment of power was over and had shot himself sooner rather than waiting the agonizing minutes it took for the police to finally break in?
I understand Cotrel’s point of view. He and his officers have a job to do. He believes it is the sole responsibility of the campus police to protect and defend the students of ETSU, and anyone else with a firearm on campus is a potential wildcard.
What he fails to take into account is that people who go through the expense, extensive training and background check necessary to legally carry handguns are responsible, law-abiding citizens. Sure, there are exceptions, but crimes committed by permit holders are extremely low.
Let’s just say that a handgun ban is a good idea. Even an off-duty policeman or sheriff’s deputy working on a criminal justice degree would not be allowed to carry his service weapon on campus when guns are banned.
In a world growing increasingly more unpredictable, it is not only prudent but it is necessary to learn to defend yourself and your family. Instead of banning people from protecting themselves, why doesn’t ETSU initiate a course for students and faculty to be properly trained so they can apply for their own carry permit? Stop blaming the legal gun owner for ‘what if’ scenarios that don’t happen. Guns in the hands of responsible citizens are far safer than in the hands of criminals.

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