I was pleased to see coverage of the Family and Personal Protection Act, and would like to clear up some misinformation that routinely appears when discussing the topic of concealed carry.

SIUC Police director Todd Sigler said it’s one thing to shoot at a paper target. ‘It’s another to make judgment calls of life and death, and it’s hard to say how people are going to respond,’ Sigler said.

In a classroom shooting situation, it’s pretty easy to tell who a psychopath is. If someone is in your classroom methodically executing every single person he walks by, then maybe he’s the one who should be put down. Other campus crimes aren’t too difficult to identify either. If a female is being forced to the ground and having her clothes ripped off, it’s pretty easy for her to tell who the rapist is. If for some reason the situation is not as clear as the scenarios I’ve presented, a common phrase in the firearm education community comes to mind. ‘When in doubt, don’t shoot.’

Rachel Ivey, a graduate student in English interviewed in the article, mentioned that recent violence at other universities made her oppose allowing concealed weapons at SIUC.

The people who hold permits are not the ones committing crimes. The Virginia Tech killer was breaking the law by even owning his firearms, and broke the law again bringing them on VT property. All of the school shooters you hear about in the news broke multiple laws by bringing their firearms on campus, and a great majority would not be eligible to obtain concealed carry permits anyway due to their mental health history and criminal background. All public universities in Utah, as well as Colorado State University and a community college in Virginia, allow permit holders to carry on campus. After allowing this for a combined total of 80 semesters, none of these schools have seen a single act of gun violence, theft or suicide. There are 48 states that recognize their citizens’ right to protect themselves and their families virtually everywhere except on campus. Do they suddenly lose control when they cross that imaginary line on the ground that designates university property?

A recent study in Texas showed that people who go through the legal process to get permits are 13.5 times less likely to commit a crime than the general population.

Statistically, only 1 to 3 percent of an eligible population will choose to obtain concealed carry permits. So if you have ever been to another state besides Illinois or Wisconsin, between 1 and 3 out of every 100 people you walk by are legally carrying firearms to protect themselves and their families. They aren’t shooting each other over parking spaces or suddenly snapping and going on killing sprees in movie theaters and malls.

They aren’t the ones you need to worry about.

It’s strange the way Illinois works. Off-duty police can carry firearms to protect themselves, celebrities and political figures have armed bodyguards, and bank guards can carry firearms to protect their cash. Are the lives of ‘regular’ citizens in Illinois not as valuable as police officers, politicians, or money?

Mueller is a graduate student in mining engineering.