tl20080221-01 "The Towerlight Feb. 21, 2008 www.thetowerlight.com Published by and for the students of Towson and Baltimore -- twice-weekly Thursday Now on TheTowerlight.com: View video Word on the Street and listen to The Towerlight Sports Podcast... Photo by Patrick Smith/The Towerlight Illustration by Matt Laumann and Jenn Long/The Towerlight Kiel McLaughlin News Editor Recent school shootings have left a permanent imprint on the minds of people across the country, leading to questions about pre-vention. One week ago, 27-year-old gradu-ate student Steven Kazmierczak opened fire on students in a lecture hall on the campus of Northern Illinois University, killing five and hospitalizing six others. Less than a year ago, Seung-Hui Cho marched through a Virginia Tech academic building with a .22 caliber handgun, killing 32 peo-ple, including students and teachers, and wounding 25 others. Both shooters then turned the gun on themselves, taking their own lives. One path to prevention would be increased gun control to keep the crim-inally inclined from receiving firearms. An alternative movement seeks to arm students and faculty, allowing them to defend themselves against shooters. Towson is a gun-free zone. The University�s weapons policy bans all firearms, along with other weapons such as Billy clubs, nunchakus and even pellet and prop guns. Only police officers are allowed to carry firearms. According to Towson University Police captain Joe Herring, there have been 12 weapons violations on campus since 2006. Only one of the incidents involved a handgun. Two involved pellet guns and one a rep-lica gun. The majority of incidents involved knives or edged weapons. �There is much more to mak-ing campus safe than putting more handguns on campus. It�s a complex issue and you can�t look at any one thing as a solution,� Herring said. Some researchers and analysts dis-agree, citing research that shows dis-tricts and states that more freely allow permitted gun owners to carry concealed weapons have seen a distinct drop in vio-lent crime. The reasoning is that gun-free zones become targets for would-be shooters who can be sure fire will not be returned. �The problem is that gun control laws don�t stop people from committing acts of violence,� 1090 AM WBAL radio talk show host Ron Smith said. �As a matter of fact, it means guns are only in the hands of those that that are criminally inclined and are going to break the law anyway.� Smith cited the difference in violent crime rates between Washington D.C. and Virginia. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation�s 2004 statistics, Washington D.C., which maintains strict handgun laws, had about 1,371 cases of violent crime per 100,000 people. Virginia, which has more permissive handgun carry laws, had 290 cases of violent crime per 100,000 people. �In the 1980s, when Florida liberalized their carry laws, there were dire predictions from the gun control people and liberals in general who said blood was going to be running in the streets,� Smith said. �Of course, the incidents of violent crime have gone down in Florida and stayed down because criminals can�t be sure that their targets won�t be able to defend themselves.� Utah is the only state that has repealed laws that made public universities gun-free zones. They have yet to experience any gun-related violent crimes, according to research done by a grassroots student group in support of concealed carry rights, Following recent shootings on college campuses, student safety is questioned Sources: The New York Times, CNN and Newsweek See GUNS, page 8 "
