Guns / Firearms

Law Students with Guns: Bad Idea, or Worst Idea Ever?

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There’s a national movement pushing for law students to have the right to carry guns on campus. They’ve even got an official acronym: SCCC (Students for Concealed Carry on Campus). The group formed in response to the VA Tech shootings last year, and currently claims to have more than 16,000 members.

They argue that when students know that other students may be armed, it has a preventative effect on anyone contemplating an NIU or VA Tech style shooting. The group also wants students to be able to protect themselves in case of another tragedy.

Dan Filler at The Faculty Lounge gives his response….

I fancy myself a Second Amendment moderate – I believe in a well-regulated right to bear arms – but I’m not at all excited about having armed students in class. For one thing, it changes the dynamic of a classroom when any odd turn during Property immediately creates the risk of armed conflict. And the possibility that students might be packing also puts a crimp in certain interesting classroom techniques – such as the famous surprise interloper who makes a dramatic entry (and departure) at the beginning of a criminal procedure class on eyewitness identification. (I’ve avoided these techniques ever since I discovered several years ago that, notwithstanding campus rules, some students already do carry in class.)

Here’s my view. First, I’ve never seen a gun on a law student at my school, and they’re pretty pro-gun rights in Alabama. But I have seen some law students go a little crazy because of the stress. Guns + law school stress seems like a terrible idea to me.

To the commenters: when you were in law school, did you ever see a student with a gun? In the alternative, we’d like to hear some of your crazier student-breakdown stories from law school.

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Law Students with Guns (in Class) [The Faculty Lounge]
Student Group Pushes for Right to Carry Concealed Weapons on Campus [Philly.com]

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