In the aftermath of unforeseen events such as the Jan. 8 shooting in Tucson, Ariz., the 2010 killing spree of three UAH faculty members by former professor Amy Bishop and the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre that took 32 lives, many UNA students question their safety while in school.

With the intention to prevent or deter similar tragedies on Arizona college campuses, Arizona legislators are pushing for two new bills that would loosen gun controls. The controversial bills would allow professors and students to carry concealed firearms with a valid permit.

The Violence Policy Center reports that more than 30,000 Americans die each year in gun-related suicides, homicides and accidental shootings as a result of the accessibility of firearms, but UNA student Brad Hornsby believes U.S. citizens have the right to carry guns on campus to ensure their own safety.

“There just isn’t enough evidence to convince me that there is sufficient reason to suppress my right to defend myself when I cross the university property line,” he said. “I can’t speak for everyone, but if I wanted to kill a lot of people I would assume that my chances of doing so were better at locations where guns were not allowed because I would know that nobody was going to be able to stop me.”

If the bills are passed, Arizona will join Utah as the second state to allow faculty members to possess concealed firearms on college campuses. The bills, which were proposed in December before the shooting in Tucson, have sparked heavy debate among citizens in Arizona and across the country.

UNA student Heather Waddell thinks that allowing professors or students to carry firearms on college campuses could result in tragic consequences.

“I wouldn’t feel safe at all,” she said. “With the UAH shooting that happened, you would have to find out if the professors were stable. It’s a trust issue and the professors could lie, which would put all students at risk. I think a lot of people would revert to more online classes so they could stay home and not come to class.”

In January 2010, former UNA student William Patrick Butler, of Birmingham, was arrested on a misdemeanor charge after carrying a loaded gun into class. UNA police Chief Bob Pastula said Butler was found with a semi-automatic pistol and revolver without a permit, along with a rifle inside his vehicle.

Pastula said Butler, a former military officer who had no intention to use the firearms, was immediately taken into custody and removed from the university, which has a zero-tolerance policy on bringing weapons to campus.

Two UNA students were suspended in a second incident in early October 2010 after a dispute between two males resulted in one of the students bringing a rifle into Rivers Hall. Because the firearm was on campus for a short period of time, administrators did not believe a Lion Alert was necessary.

Despite gun-related incidents at UNA since 2010, Pastula does not think loosening gun control laws to allow professors and students to carry concealed guns would benefit Arizona or any college campus.

“I think it’s a terrible idea,” he said. “A lot of people think that if they have a gun it will be a deterrent or a way to defend themselves, and they think going through eight hours of training is good enough, but police officers go through 400+ hours of training. If you let everyone carry guns and there’s a shooting on campus, when the police arrive they won’t be able to tell who the good or bad guy is.”

According to David Shields, vice president of Student Affairs, any use, possession or carrying of weapons, including firearms, explosives, swords, spears, knives, throwing stars or other dangerous weapons, are forbidden on the UNA campus.

Shields, who runs the campus-wide Lion Alert emergency notification system through his office, is a gun owner but does not deem it necessary to carry a firearm on campus. He believes that implementing more counseling and behavioral intervention programs, as well as expanding the UNA police department, would be more constructive.

“You can never 100 percent prevent or stop senseless acts of violence,” Shields said. “It doesn’t make our campus safer to have people armed who aren’t trained to be armed. All of us need to be vigilant about our own safety, so if we see something odd, we need to notify someone.”

For more information about getting Lion Alert notifications regarding emergencies on campus, call 256-765-4223. To submit a silent witness report, visit http://www.una.edu/police/crime-watch.html.