A new report from the Brady Campaign to Combat Gun Violence says colleges may have legal problems if they allow students to carry weapons on their campuses.

Courts have long recognized an obligation by colleges and schools to provide a “safe environment” for students. Courts have found, in many previous cases, that colleges were liable in attacks that occurred on campuses.

Some gun advocates have proposed, in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings in April, that students be allowed to carry guns and that teachers be armed, as well, in order to thwart would-be killers. Some of those gun proponents have cited the example of an armed student at the University of Idaho who was shot by a gunman whom he had sought to challenge last Saturday in an off-campus incident.

The Brady Campaign’s report argues that such policies would make campuses less safe, not safer, and would be likely to lead to more violence by young people already prone to impulsive acts and substance abuse. —Martin Van Der Werf