A group of ASU students has renewed the push to allow guns on college campuses in Arizona.
Students for Self Defense is a student-run group that believes students should be allowed to carry guns, knives, Mace and pepper spray on campus to defend themselves. Currently, guns, knives of more than five inches and police- or military-grade pepper sprays are prohibited by university policy.
"It's a right under our constitution," Students for Self Defense president Jacob Pritchett said. "We think it's prudent to allow people to decide how they want to defend themselves."
Pritchett said the group's push started just hours before the massacre at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. Some students on campus were reportedly carrying guns at the time, but decided not to use them for fear of being mistaken for the shooter.
"That's likely to happen," Pritchett said, "But it's not likely to happen before the police come."
Pritchett said he believed ASU should allow students to carry all kinds of weapons for self-defense, including police-grade Mace.
But gun control advocates said they don't believe the weapons argument is about Mace. They believe allowing guns on campuses is a bad idea, one that's been defeated several times in the state legislature over the past five years.
"They try to say, 'well we're really only trying to allow people to carry pepper spray or a Taser or something like that," Arizonans for Gun Safety founder Gerry Hills said, "But what they're really trying to do is get guns on campuses."
ASU issued a statement outlining its existing security measures. ASU President Michael Crow has repeatedly said he does not support guns on college campuses.
The complete statement:
Arizona State University's top priority is providing a safe and secure environment for the entire campus community. A variety of resources help maintain a safe educational environment for students, both on and off-campus, as well as faculty and staff. Resources include, but are not limited to:
- Arizona State University Police field more than 80 sworn police officers and detectives who, through proactive law enforcement, patrol the campus, conduct investigations and provide students, faculty and staff with safety services;
- Safety escort service is available to all students, faculty and staff;
- ASU Blue-Light Emergency Call Boxes are located throughout the four campus locations;
- LiveSafe mobile app, where students can report real-time anonymous tips to ASU Police using audio, live chat, pictures or video.
The app's SafeWalk feature enables users traveling from one point to another to chat live with their designated emergency contacts (friends or family) during their trip as they view the step-by-step progress on a map. Users can deactivate SafeWalk after they reached their destination.
The university offers education and resources to ensure that all members of the university are prepared in the event of an emergency and have the right tools to respond.
