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It's no secret that many Americans live in an environment filled with fear and the threat of violence. Awakened by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, many live in a constant state of unease and nervousness about what may happen around them.
And as many college students know, this threat does not come only from foreign soil, but from directly in classrooms and residence halls. All it takes is the push of a button to be bombarded with images of violent school shootings from Virginia Tech to Northern Illinois University.
Because of these tragedies, many students advocate mental health programs. Others work toward promoting emergency response systems and strategic planning.
However, some students in schools across the United States are pushing for more extreme measures: allowing students to carry concealed weapons onto campus and into classrooms.
In fact, a national, non-partisan group of more than 19,000 students, faculty members, parents and concerned citizens, called Students for Concealed Carry on Campus (SCCC), is advocating just that in light of recent school shootings.
The group's main objectives, according to its Web site, are to educate the public about concealed weapons as well as to push legislatures and school administrations to allow concealed carry on college campuses.
"SCCC contends it is now abundantly clear that 'gun free zones' serve to disarm only those law-abiding citizens who might be able to mitigate such tragedies," states concealedcampus.org.
Indiana Borough and IUP law enforcement officials, however, disagree that more guns will equal less violence.
"You would have no idea who is and who isn't carrying a gun, and what if someone reached for something in their pocket and someone else thought it was a gun?" said Bill Montgomery, IUP's director of public safety. "You just wouldn't know."
In addition to the confusion such a situation might create, Indiana Borough Police Chief Bill Sutton said that having so many untrained people with weapons could create even more danger.
"It creates a completely different category of people carrying guns," Sutton said. "Police receive extensive training, but laypersons carrying firearms, who I would have to assume don't have formal training, is a problem."
Although in many cases, it is an individual's right to conceal a weapon according to the U.S. Constitution and state statutes, if he or she is cleared for the proper permit, this is not the case at IUP or other universities.
In fact, the Student Behavior Regulation 12 from the Office of Student Conduct prohibits the "possession and/or use of any weapon, which is any object used to inflict a wound or cause injury." This list includes firearms but also knives, explosives, BB guns and stun guns, among many other objects.
Although these items are not allowed on any campus property - including in vehicles parked in the Robertshaw lot - students may check a gun at the campus police station after filling out the appropriate paper work, Montgomery said. Most often, however, this process is not used for handguns, but for hunting rifles or for those in target practicing clubs.
"We don't have guns going in and out of [the police station] at all hours," he said. "You can check a gun and then take it out between around 6 a.m. and 4 or 5 p.m., but not just anytime you want."
However, if students like those in SCCC are successful in their efforts, this could someday change at IUP and universities across the country.
"That's not the answer," Montgomery said.
Sutton agrees that no good would come of more guns, both in the borough and on campus.
"Things happen and they are very unfortunate, but you can't think of it like 'I have to carry a gun because I might be attacked,'" he said. "You can't live like that."
Sutton, however, does not dismiss the real fears of violence that can occur anywhere at anytime.
"Violent crimes happen here, but they aren't commonplace," he said.
"Could IUP be victim to a shooting? Yes, it can happen anywhere. But we shouldn't be asking how to prevent it, because these shootings are random and you can't prevent them," Sutton said,? "We should be working on our strategic plans to respond if something does occur."
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