Kutztown, 4 Other Pennsylvania Public Universities Now Allow Students To Carry Guns On Campus

In the battle over whether or not firearms should be allowed on school grounds at any level as a measure of protection, five state universities in Pennsylvania changed their policies. One in particular took a visible stand on the issue.

Kutztown University, situated in a rural area 15 miles southwest of the city of Allentown, announced that its students would be able to obtain concealed-carry permits and therefore allow guns on campus. However, the policy will reportedly still ban weapons from football games and other athletic events, as well as inside many university buildings, including its Golden Bear Food Court dining hall.

Javier Cevallos, the president of Kutztown University, penned an email to students to reassure that the new conceal-carry policy instituted was well thought-out and will be executed with students' safety in mind.

"I can assure you that we have done everything to implement the strongest policy possible while staying in compliance with Constitutional rights," he wrote, according to RedAlert Politics.

The policy became effective April 19 and was reportedly conceived as a measure to guarantee that students' Second Amendment rights were not infringed upon, while concerns of increased violence would still be kept to a minimum.

Some students, including senior Joe McDermott, speaking with the Allentown Morning Call via Twitter said that the policy was needed because of the recent uptick in criminal activity in the small town. "With the rise of crimes on campus, carrying a firearm should be allowed," McDermott said.

Despite Kutztown's location in the middle of Pennsylvania farm country, the borough of Kutztown and the campus itself has seen its share of city-type crime over the past few years.

In 2008, three young men were charged in the 2007 beating death of 19-year-old student Kyle Quinn of Warminster, Pa. Quinn was walking on Main Street at 2:30 a.m. when the trio attacked him.

Timothy Gearhart, 24, of Allentown, Pa. was sentenced to 20-40 years in prison for third degree murder in the killing of Quinn after knocking him to the ground with a wooden chair leg. Brothers Terry, 23 and Kenneth Kline, 22, both of Allentown, were acquitted in the murder case, but convicted of aggravated assault and other charges before a Berks County jury.

Kutztown itself is normally a tight-knit quiet community outside of the one week per summer that the borough hosts a Pennsylvania German folk festival. The unforeseen act of violence, the first in over 25 years, stunned the campus and the surrounding communities. "It's 'Amishville'," Student Marissa Petruzzi said of the small borough at the end of Route 737, which winds northward toward Blue Mountain past numerous fields and farms, "This stuff doesn't happen here."

Other than a short freeway bypass for US 222, the area has remained largely unchanged for decades. Crime statistics have indeed risen, but not to the level of any major city. According to KU Campus Police records, in 2011, there were two reported on-campus forcible burglaries, nine sex offenses, zero murders and 67 arrests, plus 129 "referrals" for liquor law violations.

However, a spokesman for KU, Matt Santos, said the new ordinance is not related to the uptick in campus crime, saying that the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education reportedly asked all 13 state-owned universities to have weapons policies that complied with Constitutional edict.

Four other state schools: Slippery Rock, Shippensburg, Edinboro and Millersville Universities have reportedly passed similar policies.