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POSITION: The Brady Campaign adamantly opposes efforts by the gun lobby to force college officials to allow students and teachers to carry hidden handguns on campus and in classrooms.

PROBLEM: The gun lobby wants to override decisions made by those responsible for campus safety by allowing students to keep handguns and other firearms in college dorm rooms and carry them into classrooms.

THREAT: College students engage in a great many high-risk behaviors; including binge drinking and drug abuse, and are also at elevated risks for suicide. Dorms and classrooms provide little room for the safe storage of weapons. Introducing guns into this environment will increase the danger to students every hour of every day. Arming students would not save lives in the extremely rare instances where mass shootings occur on campus. Even trained police officers, on average, hit their intended targets less than 20% of the time. If several people are armed during a shooting incident, security will not know which person is the aggressor. Moreover, with everyone armed, security will not know when to issue a "lock-down" alarm or be able to disarm a campus threat before the shooting starts. Restricting hidden handguns to persons with concealed carry licenses is not the solution. Indeed, several mass shooters were qualified for, and would have been issued, concealed carry licenses if they had applied for them.

URGENCY: There is no federal law that specifically allows or prohibits guns on college campuses. Twenty-four states have passed laws prohibiting or tightly restricting guns on college campuses, expressly allowing colleges and universities in the state to set such policies, or prohibiting carrying concealed weapons altogether. Only one state — Utah — currently prohibits college administrators and security professionals to set rules regarding firearms on campus, thus effectively allowing guns on campus.

SOLUTION: State legislators should keep their prohibition of guns on campus or continue to allow college administrators and security professionals to adopt and enforce rules that prohibit guns in college dorm rooms and classrooms. Rather than allowing our campuses to become armed camps, state legislators should fight for stronger gun laws to keep dangerous guns away from dangerous people.

GET ACTIVE:

1. Download and distribute copies of our report, No Gun Left Behind: The Gun Lobby's Campaign to Push Guns Into Colleges and Schools
2. Click here to sign up to our list. We'll send you critical updates and information to help you keep schools safe.
3. You can also join a Million Mom March Chapter; Click here to get involved locally.
4. Write to your elected officials and local newspapers demanding that they pass sensible gun laws and ensure that schools and colleges are allowed to control firearms on campus.