The New York Times has provided a view into the thoughts of the  faculty of the University of Colorado Boulder, and, by extension, the  world view of probably most professors nationwide, that sees students carrying guns as a threat.  Not reassuring.  

A Colorado State Supreme Court ruling has forced the university to  allow students with concealed weapon permits to carry their guns on  campus.  A concealed weapon permit is issued only after a government  determination that there is no record of criminal activity or mental  disturbances regarding the applicant.  The Times notes that the  university's new gun policy has produced anxiety and the feeling among a  percentage of the faculty that the presence of armed students in their  classrooms will create a climate of fear and intimidation and inhibit  the ability to speak and offer controversial opinions in a free and open  manner.  The chairman of the Faculty Assembly said that he would cancel  class if he discovered one of his students was carrying a gun.  Faculty  members are discussing how to overturn the policy through legislative  channels and the university administration has created a requirement  that students who want to bring  their firearms on campus must live in separate student apartments and  cottages.  

Since 1999, starting with Columbine, there have been 11 school  shootings resulting in 70 dead and 42 wounded, including an incident at  the University of Alabama where a professor killed three colleagues and  wounded three others.  Four of the shooters committed suicide, two at  Columbine, and two others in separate shootings.  The other seven shooters were stopped when somebody showed up with a gun.  

The interesting part is that there is no debate at UCB about  whether or not armed individuals would stop a mass murderer.  Common  sense and practical experience shows that armed intervention is about  the only way to stop the carnage.  The most rational argument against an  armed civilian stopping a massacre is that a shoot out would result and  there would be more injuries and deaths among the bystanders, but there  is no example of a multiple victim public shooting in which a permit  holder confronting a shooter accidentally shot a bystander.  The issue  revolves around the delicate sensitivities of the staff and their  hysteria at the possibility of being in close proximity of a firearm and  their firm belief that their students might be insane and could begin  shooting if provoked.  As one professor notes, "The classroom is a place  where judgment is levied upon individuals, not unlike a court of  law.  You interject a firearm and there's potential for a  confrontation."  However, of the 70 dead the only staff that have been  killed in the last 13 years were shot by a professor.    

There has always been a problem with lunatics going berserk.  There  has never been a better solution to the problem than an armed  response.  That this escapes the approval of the highly paid and  influential faculty in our universities and instead produces denial and  fear of their students is something else for the rest of us to worry  about.