There really is no legitimate reason to prevent licensed gun owners -- especially those with concealed carry permits -- from taking their gun onto a college campus with them. These students recognize that, and are trying to do something about it.

Mike Guzman and thousands of other students say the best way to prevent campus bloodshed is more guns.

Guzman, an economics major at Texas State University-San Marcos, is among 8,000 students nationwide who have joined the nonpartisan Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, arguing that students and faculty already licensed to carry concealed weapons should be allowed to pack heat along with their textbooks.

"It's the basic right of self defense," said Guzman, a 23-year-old former Marine. "Here on campus, we don't have that right, that right of self defense."

Every state but Illinois and Wisconsin allows residents some form of concealed handgun carrying rights, with 36 states issuing permits to most everyone who meets licensing criteria. The precise standards vary from state to state, but most require an applicant to be at least 21 and to complete formal instruction on use of force.

Many states forbid license-holders from carrying weapons on school campuses, while in states where the decision is left to the universities, schools almost always prohibit it. Utah is the only state that expressly allows students to carry concealed weapons on campus.

College campuses are different from other public places where concealed weapons are allowed. Thousands of young adults are living in close quarters, facing heavy academic and social pressure - including experimenting with drugs and alcohol - in their first years away from home.

But let's consider the reality here -- how many school shootings have been perpetrated by folks legally carrying legally owned guns? I may be wrong, but I believe the number falls somewhere between 1 and -1. And in every case, the person using the weapon to commit mayhem was in violation of the school's gun-free campus victim disarmament policy.

And I'm really struck by opponents of allowing guns on campus.

W. Gerald Massengill, the chairman of the independent panel that investigated the Virginia Tech shootings, said those concerns outweigh the argument that gun-carrying students could have reduced the number of fatalities inflicted by someone like Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho.

"I'm a strong supporter of the Second Amendment," said Massengill, a former head of the Virginia state police. "But our society has changed, and there are some environments where common sense tells us that it's just not a good idea to have guns available."

I always love the "living Constitution" folks who want to explain how time and social changes are the basis for restricting our right to defend ourselves from violent criminals. One would think that after the massacre he investigated, common sense would tell Massengill that student safety could not be any more compromised than it was that day unless the victims had been required to wear targets to assist their murderer with his aim.

And then there is this comment from a leader a major gun-grabbing froup.

His view is echoed by Peter Hamm, a spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, who says campus safety concerns cannot be addressed by adding more guns to campuses.

"If there's more we need to do, we certainly need to do that, but introducing random access to firearms is not the solution," said Hamm. "You have more victims, not fewer victims."

I suppose that Hamm's comment would be relevant if we were talking about random access to firearms. The reality is that what is being proposed folks licensed to carry guns be allowed to carry guns just like they can in most places -- which has not increased the number of "victims" according to most studies of the issue, and which has reduced violent crime. Indeed, the gun-free campus victim disarmament policy at Virginia Tech certainly did a bang-up job of minimizing the number of victims there, didn't it? After all, students ad faculty members cowering in fear as a madman stalked them were obviously much better protected than they would have been if even one of them had been armed and capable of stopping the rabid animal seeking to end their lives.

There are, of course, other reasons for allowing students to exercise their statutory and constitutional right to carry firearms. Many colleges and universities are located in areas with higher crime rates. Why should students be put at risk from those random crimes. In addition, the policies interfere with the right of these students to carry their weapons elsewhere, rendering them unsafe away from campus as well as while attending classes. The time has come to treat the adult students on college campuses like adults.

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT Perri Nelson's Website, Rosemary's Thoughts, Stuck On Stupid, The Amboy Times, Big Dog's Weblog, Chuck Adkins, Adeline and Hazel, Public Domain Clip Art, third world county, MyHTPC, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Pirate's Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Wolf Pangloss, Dumb Ox Daily News, CORSARI D'ITALIA, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.