A new student group has emerged on the Villanova campus: the Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. The SCCC (which I hope is pronounced “sick-kuh-kuh”) is an umbrella organization that boasts nearly 20,000 students on 500 campuses nationwide. In the wake of the Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois school shootings, they are fighting for the right for students to carry concealed weapons on their college campuses.

Their argument is simple: if granted proper permits, students should be allowed to protect themselves against would-be shooters.In the Inquirer article, Ken Stanton, a graduate student at Virginia Tech, compared wearing a seat belt to carrying a concealed weapon. He said, “It’s the same reason we wear seat belts - we just don’t know when something is going to happen.”

With great respect to Mr. Stanton, I’m not aware of too many seat belt massacres and, typically, a lengthy background check is not necessary to acquire a seat belt. (more…)