College dean: Guns already on campus, gun bans don’t stop criminals

The bluster and passion over campus carry in Texas and other states is irrelevant, one associate dean in Arkansas argues.

“If you really think that there are no guns on college campuses in Texas, or elsewhere, because there is a law that forbids having guns on campus, you are mistaken,” Erik Gilbert, an associate dean and history professor at Arkansas State University, wrote for The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Students already bring concealed weapons onto campuses illegally, he said. Campus-carry laws, which have sparked contentious debates in Texas, Missouri, Alabama, and Georgia, among other states, won’t affect the safety of students, professors, and faculty that much.

“If those illegally armed students were not moved to violence by the content of your course or the statements of their fellow students, it seems highly improbable that a new group of legally armed students will prove to be more volatile or violence-prone than their scofflaw peers,” Gilbert wrote.

Media coverage and local culture affect the campus debate. It’s difficult to say with certainty, but in rural regions and campuses in the south and west, a concealed weapon illegally on campus is more common than in urban areas or the northeast. Gun ownership rates are higher in those areas, and students or staff could carry a weapon onto campus unintentionally or for convenience.