A lot of the deciding factor is the age of the student. The people I can see carrying would be professors or non-traditional students. Either returning for an additional degree or starting later (i.e. ex military) or working on a degree in night classes after work. The parking areas can seem mighty dark when there's only a couple cars left in the lot. Given the required investment in money and/or time to get the permit I would expect that several who already had a permit would. As far as weight goes, it's like Benjammin said in another post. Once you've made it part of your routine EDC you won't notice it added to the 25-30 lbs of books. It would take a large automatic and a couple of magazines before I'd notice the added weight if it was carried with the books in a pack.

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in favor of regulating firearms possession and use at least as stringently as we regulate the right to drive legally


I don't know about other states but Tennessee requires passing a hunter's safety course with both written & range components before you can get your license. Same thing for the CCW license. IIRC the hunter safety course is 3-4 evenings of lecture plus demonstrate safe handling while shooting clay pigeons on the range. The CCW license is an evening presentation on the legalities plus exam and accuracy with safe handling on the range. They also require a background check with the sheriff's office for the purchase of handguns. I don't know if the background check requirement includes long arms.