Campus Life and Guns - NYTimes.com - 0 views
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The gun lobby is flirting with self-parody as it exploits the issue of sexual assaults on college campuses by proposing a solution of — what else? — having students carry guns. Experts who study the complicated issue of predatory behavior and advise colleges point out that rapes often begin in social situations. “It would be nearly impossible to run for a gun,” said John Foubert, the national president of One in Four, a rape-prevention organization.
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Such common sense, however, has never deterred statehouse politicians when it comes to obeying the gun lobby.
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Lawmakers in 10 states are busy adapting the issue of campus sexual assaults to the campaign to arm college students.
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Carrying concealed weapons on college campuses is now banned in 41 states by law or university policy.
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In Colorado, North Dakota and Wyoming, legislators are working to allow adults to carry firearms in schools, starting in kindergarten.
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As the debate goes forward, legislators would be wise to resort to some facts and consider a new study, based on federal data, by the Violence Policy Center. It strongly suggests that states with weak gun-safety laws and high rates of gun ownership lead the nation in gun deaths.