Would legalizing guns on campus make colleges safer? Newbern, the assistant director of Public Relations concludes that legalizing guns on campus will not make the campus less safe. He attempts to convince the readers that lawfully licensed gun owners should have the equal rights to carry guns to college campuses just as their rights to carry guns at movie theatres, public libraries, and mall food court. He claims that there are no reasons to ban guns on campuses and individual rights should be treated equally and fairly. However, the fallacy of Newbern’s conclusion that is based on insufficient evidence and hasty generalization has made his argument less persuasive.
I found that several of Newbern’s points do not reach his conclusion when looked at logically. Newbern has failed to present conclusive evidence on the safety issues on college campuses and individual’s rights to held guns on college campuses. He made a hasty generalization based on a single published report, stating that not a single intentional act of violence has ever been carried out by a licensee with a firearm at The University of Texas-Austin college campus. Therefore, he claims that there are no reasons why guns should be ban on college campuses.
His only evidence on showing that no violence or crimes had been committed by an armed individual at The University of Texas-Austin campus is clearly not enough to show that it will have the same result at many other college campuses. Besides that, Newbern’s assumption on allowing lawfully licensed gun owners to bring their guns to college campuses because they have the rights to carry guns at other public areas, such as movie theatres, public libraries and malls are not logical. He only emphasized on the importance of protecting the rights of individuals to carry guns in public, but not the safety of the people in public.
Without guns, there won’t be any violence or crimes. By allowing lawfully licensed students, faculty, or staff members to carry guns to schools to prevent mass shooting is not feasible as it will not only promote fear in school but also increase the risk of violence and crimes in school. School is a place to nurture an individual, not promote war or violence. Thus, I don’t see any reasons why guns should be allowed on college campuses despite the potential violation of the U.S. Second Amendment. Newbern had portrayed a logical appeal in his argument, using evidence, and examples and questions the readers on their individual rights to carry guns on college campuses.
However, his evidence is not sufficient enough and it can’t be a good representation to generalize the entire nation. Also, his logical appeals in his argument is not effective as he is trying to promote individual rights instead of individual safety. Moreover, there are insufficient evidence in his argument on the impact of allowing licensed gun owners to carry guns on college campuses. Guns should not be allowed on college campuses as it will only make it less safe. I believe that by allowing guns on campuses, it will only make it worse as irresponsible individuals or mistakes will happen and it could affect the college atmosphere to be more stressful and dangerous.
