Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, also known as SCCC, are 25 members strong at Ball State University, but they are still educating others and defending our second amendment rights to bear arms.  Student president, Blake Graham, feels that something needs to be done because we do have those rights as citizens.  He also feels that if we do not defend ourselves, that criminal driven individuals will not abide the law and when they don’t we won’t have firearms to help us.  “If we place this imaginary boundary around the campus that says that this is a gun free zone.  And basically that’s going to tell someone that wants to cause harm that we don’t allow firearms and the chances of your victims having firearms are slim to none,” stated Graham.  The student chapter of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus was created by David Barker before he graduated.  Barker passed the chapter presidency on to Graham this past year.  SCCC at large has over 35,000 members.  In November of this year, Students for Concealed Carry on Campus held their first national Pitch it to the People Week where they educated others on the negative notions of concealed carry on college campuses.

                But not all students feel as strongly about the issue as Graham.  Sophomore Social Work Major, Megan Thomason, who is currently enrolled in the largest lecture hall class, feels that concealed carry would cause more problems than benefits.  “Why bring guns into a situation where they don’t need to be.  If you bring them, it’s going to give you more of an opportunity for violence to happen,” said Thomason.  She is among 1,500 other Ball State University students currently enrolled this fall semester in Communication Studies 210.  The course is required by all students in order to graduate.  The lectures are held three separate times on Monday’s in Pruis Hall, which accommodates approximately 500 students. 

Professor of Communication Studies 210, Tiffany Hecklinski, has been teaching the course since the beginning of this semester.  She has differing views on the social issue.  “My political views and my personal views kind of conflict a little bit because at the same time I don’t want to be up their standing thinking that one of my students could be carrying a gun.  And at the same time I’m a mother.  And I don’t know if I would want my child sitting in a classroom knowing that someone next to them could have a gun as well.”  Hecklinski is married to the Ball State University football recruiting coordinator/receivers coach and the mother of three children. 

As the issue continues to grow across Ball State’s campus and other campuses throughout Indiana, special interest groups will continue to send legislation through the statehouse on concealed carry rights.