Students for Concealed Carry

An interesting article out of Kentucky. I'll skip the anti-gun portion.

Steven Davis owns a gun, and he has a permit to carry a concealed weapon. But when he steps onto Eastern's campus, he has to leave his gun behind. Davis and about 30 other people at Eastern want to change that.

Davis is a member of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, an anti-gun-control group at Eastern that advocates allowing people with concealed carry permits to bring their guns on campus with them.

Students for Concealed Carry has representatives at college campuses in 34 states. It wants to "push our state governments to approve laws that will give students and teachers the right to carry handguns on our college campuses," according to its Web site.

"I think it's a good group to get involved with," Davis said.

Davis signed up to help Students for Concealed Carry last fall.

In order to accomplish its goal, Students for Concealed Carry would need more than a chapter at Eastern. They would need to convince the state government to pass a law making gun bans on college campuses illegal, Davis said.

The only state currently allowing concealed weapons on campus is Utah.

Davis is still in the process of putting together a local group, but he said there are more than 30 people interested in being a part of Students for Concealed Carry. He doesn't expect there will be any change in the law before he graduates, he said.

Davis said allowing guns would make Eastern's campus safer because the people who have concealed carry permits already know how to use their guns correctly.

"It allows the people who can fight back the tools to fight back with," Davis said.

Another reason to allow guns is police response time, Davis said. Police can take several minutes to get to the scene of an emergency, which could be too late, he said.

"When seconds count, that four or five minutes is an eternity," he said.

Besides owning a gun and having a permit to carry a concealed weapon, Davis is also a concealed-carry instructor. This means he can teach the one-day class applicants must take before receiving their concealed-carry permit.

Davis said he believes the class teaches people how to be responsible with their guns and when it is appropriate or inappropriate in the use of guns. A one-day class isn't going to work miracles though, he said.

"It's not going to turn them into a police officer overnight," he said.

Allowing concealed carry wouldn't flood the campus with guns because only 1.5 to 2 percent of people have a concealedcarry permit, and you must be over 21 to apply for one, Davis said.

"It really wouldn't be that many people that would have [a gun] on campus," he said.

And Davis said gun-free zones like Eastern's campus are good targets for criminals. "Allowing people to carry guns on campus would mean criminals wouldn't know who had a gun and who didn't," he said.