Utah College Students Allowed to Carry Concealed Weapons

By Anastacia Mott Austin

Students at the University of Utah have been allowed to carry guns to class for over a year, ever since state law overturned a ban on weapons in 2006.

Utah state representative Curtis Odah is sponsoring a bill to allow for all Utah residents to be able to carry a gun, concealed or not.

The University of Utah had instituted a ban on students having guns on campus, which other area colleges supported. After the ban was overturned, the university has been fighting to have it reinstated…but it looks like they may lose.

Media attention on the recent school shootings in Illinois and last year’s Virginia Tech massacre have made some students feel that they would have a fighting chance to defend themselves should a similar attack occur at their school.

A student who wished only to identify himself as Nick spoke to CNN student correspondent Joshua Molina, who attends school in Utah. "Last year, after Virginia Tech, I thought ‘I'm not going to be a victim,’ said Nick to Molina.

"My first thought was, ‘How tragic.’ But then I couldn’t help but think it could've been different if they'd allowed the students the right to protect themselves."

He could have a point. Police arrived within minutes of the start of the rampage by former Northern Illinois University student Stephen Kazmierczak earlier this month. But by then, five students had already been killed and 16 others wounded.

Nick thinks that if a similar attack were to occur at his own school, he would be prepared to fight back with his weapon . "I feel that I will be able to protect myself, and I'm confident in my training and my ability," said Nick.

Representative Odah says that people who own and carry guns are certified to do so, and are safer than one might assume. "When you see someone with a gun, you are looking at some of the most law-abiding people in the state," said Odah to reporters.

The recent school shootings inspired the creation of an online student group which lobbies for the right of students to carry guns on campus. Currently Utah is the only state that allows this, and only on public state university grounds. Some students at other colleges feel they would be better protected at school if they could carry weapons.

Scott Lewis, the media representative for the online group Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, told reporters, "What this is really about is evening the odds."

"What we're saying is, let these trained, licensed individuals who are already carrying throughout their day-to-day lives without incident, let them carry on these college campuses and take that advantage away from those dangerous individuals," said Lewis to ABC News.

The group currently boasts 15,000 members, and has added new members daily since the Illinois campus shooting.

But not everyone thinks that a bunch of college kids carrying their own guns around would be a deterrent to gunmen who are determined to take out as many innocent lives as possible.

Peter Hamm, a spokesman for the group Brady Campaign to Stop Gun Violence, says that more guns in tense shootout situations is only going to make things worse, not better. "I’d say that we all want James Bond or John Wayne to step forward when a bad guy shows up, but the real world doesn't operate that way," said Hamm to reporters. "In the real world, when a second person draws a weapon in a crowded classroom full of people, it ends up with more people being shot, not fewer people being shot."

While current laws only allow students in Utah to carry guns to class, other universities in Colorado and Virginia are mulling new campus laws to let their students carry on campus.

University of Utah student Griselda Espinoza spoke to student reporter Molina: "I feel less safe knowing that a stranger sitting beside me in class may have a gun in his or her backpack," said Espinoza.

But others feel that at the very least, the carnage at the recent shootings could at least have been reduced, a claim echoed by many supporters of the new laws. "The people that do it want to commit suicide anyway," said Rob Morrison, a student at Brigham Young University, to reporters. "But it would give students a chance to defend themselves, and at Virginia Tech, it could have ended sooner than it did."