Is there any evidence guns will make Georgia college campuses safer?

In pushing through another bill to allow guns on Georgia public college campuses, lawmakers argue that college students need a way to defend themselves.

A University of North Georgia professor put that contention to the test and found it lacking.

Writing in the AJC Get Schooled blog, Matthew Boedy said,”Advocates of campus carry – that policy inscribed in House Bill 280 now before the Georgia Senate that would permit concealed guns on college campuses – continually tell us about other states who has passed similar laws. They put great emphasis on Utah and Colorado, the two states that have allowed guns on campus for some years.”

Boedy asked campus police chiefs from the two largest universities in Utah for reports from 2004 to 2016 of a victim using a firearm to stop a crime in progress. Neither university had a single example.

“Campus carry advocates continuously talk about stopping robberies and rapes with guns. Yet in states with a robust history of ‘campus carry’ not one victim reported to campus police that a gun helped fend off an attack,” he said.

To read more and see reader reaction, go to the AJC Get Schooled blog.