The topic of gun control has been a controversial issue this year. Not only is this topic popping up time and time again on national and statewide levels, the effects of the controversy are now being experienced at WTAMU.
Two weeks ago, Student Government voted in favor of concealed carry at WT. This means if the other steps are taken on the state level and the state passes a law permitting concealed carry, they would already know how students at WT feel about it.
Before the vote took place, there were several other methods used to attempt to figure out how students at WT felt about the issue. Three Town Hall meetings took place, but the student turnout at all three meetings was not very high.
“At the time, we figured a topic like this would be different than others,” Nune Perez, Student Affairs Committee Chairman, said. “[We thought] students would want to get their voice out and it didn’t turn out that way at the Town Hall meetings.”
Student Government also did paper balloting and sent out a poll through students’ emails. The poll consisted of one question, “Are you for concealed handgun licensing on campus?” Possible answers included yes, no, maybe and not determined.
“When we came with the Senate vote, we were trying to use as much consideration of what all of our constituents wanted,” Perez said.
More than 1200 responses were received from the poll that was sent out. However, these results could be skewed because people were allowed to take the survey multiple times if they chose to, according to Dr. Kristina Drumheller, Associate Professor of Communication Studies and the departments’ Director of Graduate Studies.
“Probably the biggest problem with that survey in terms of showing its validity was that it could be taken multiple times, so you can’t guarantee that only one person took that survey and so your responses could be skewed,” Drumheller said. “Because of that, you can’t really rely on those results for making any really good decisions.”
According to Drumheller, there is a setting on Qualtrics, the software used to create the poll, that defaults to where you can take the survey multiple times, but it can be set so that the survey can only be taken one time per I.P. address.
“That too is a little tricky because students are taking it on the same computers in the HELC and things like that,” Drumheller said. “So when you’re talking about a student population, sometimes if you’ve got a lengthier survey, odds of somebody going back in and spending another 15 minutes to take the survey are pretty limited, so I think you can take those risks.”
Although there were some glitches, Perez said the Student Affairs Committee had a pretty good idea about how the students felt about the subject. When they make a vote, especially one as controversial as conceal carry, they try to do everything they can to get the students’ opinions.
“My personal stance is that I do not believe that [guns] belong in schools,” Perez said. “We have a University Police Department for a reason, which is to provide security and look out for the general welfare of the students, but when it came to the Senate vote, I voted for it because that is what my constituents wanted.”
Many students, however, said they never even knew about the survey.
“I didn’t hear anything really about the topic of concealed carry on campus until the story came out in The Prairie,” Jenna Mize, senior
Advertising and Public Relations major, said. “As far as the survey, I think they could have done a better job letting students know about it.”
Mize also said her feelings about concealed carry on campus are mixed.
“I think it could be a good thing in some ways,” Mize said. “But then again, if everyone on campus was carrying a handgun, well that would just be crazy.”
As far as the topic of concealed carry on campuses, the issue awaits further action at the state level.
