Multimedia proposal

The gun control debate has entered the university campus. Currently, few universities allow guns carried on campus. Although carrying a gun may give people a false sense of safety, it can cause panic among fellow students. If you are a student who lives on campus, you may be awaken by an alert of a possible shooter on campus. On September, 2014, there was such an alert about shots fired on the campus of the University of Kentucky. Three shots were reportedly fired near the Kirwan Tower around 10 p.m. Students were ordered to avoid the area and seek shelter immediately. In spite of the fact that UK police had given all clear, students remained frightened throughout the night.

Public colleges and universities must strike a delicate balance between public safety and Second Amendment rights when it comes to policies regarding firearms on campus. Arguments can be made for both allowing and banning guns. Voices on both sides have gotten louder following several campus shooting across the country. Gun advocates propose that more concealed carry permits and arming staff will reduce both on campus shootings and those injured in such incidents that may still arise. Anti-gun advocates feel that allowing guns on campus will only increase the amount of violence and arming students and staff would cause more issues than it would solve. A bigger question to be answered is “Do students even care about the debate of guns on campus?”

Our group will produce a multimedia presentation in the form of either a slide show or video. This presentation will discuss the controversy surrounding firearms on university campuses and present multiple perspectives through surveys via a service like Survey Monkey and recorded interviews with students and university officials including staff and police officers. We would also like to interview members of the local chapter of Students for Concealed Carry and members of any opposing student organizations on campus. These will provide opinions and ideas specific to the UK campus and also allow us to compile visual aids such as chart and graphs with the survey results. We will also look at recent court cases such as Mitchell v. University of Kentucky which decided if students and employees are permitted to have firearms in the glove boxes of their vehicles parked on university property and Regents of the University of Colorado v. Students for Concealed Carry on Campus that lead to students being allowed to carry concealed firearms on certain areas of the University of Colorado’s campus. These cases will give us some insight into the views of the American court system. A plethora of academic research along with newspaper and magazine articles discussing the subject are available featuring multiple view points and statistics. We will review these for pertinent information and statistics on a larger scale than just UK’s campus. We will be able to compile additional charts and graphs relevant to our project.

Though there are many directions we could go and many questions to be asked, our goal is to find answer these questions. What are student and staff views on carrying a gun on campus? Would people be more comfortable with open carry or concealed carry? Do we really need guns on campus? How can colleges protect students from dangers both on campus and danger from the outside? What things can the students do to protect themselves without using firearms? Do students and teachers favor gun control over gun rights? What can we as students do against gun-wielding criminals and not be defenseless? Will we be safer if we have guns?

We have set up task and deadlines to help ensure our project is completed in a timely manner. All dates are tentative and may be adjusted due to scheduling issues. Each task has multiple group members assigned to it to prevent issues should emergencies or conflicts should arise. We have set up a group discussion website to make sure all team members are aware of the status of the presentation. Tasks and deadlines are assigned as listed below.

Tasks

Assigned Members

Due Date

Still photograph

Kassandra, Julie

April 17

Interviews

Kathryn, Berniece

April 17

Research

Li, Julie, Kassandra

April 17

Filming

Julie, Kathryn

April 19

Multimedia script

Julie, Berniece

April 19

Oral Presentation script

Kassandra, Julie, Li

April 21

Music/Sound

Kathryn, Berniece

April 19

Editing

Julie, Li

April 22