‘Campus Carry’ Brings Mixed Feelings For Ga. Students, Parents

“Even without these rules, there’s always going to be people who, if provoked enough, they will bring a gun or cause havoc. But campus carry will give us an opportunity to defend ourselves if necessary,” Kang says.

Nag Bondada came with his daughter from Alpharetta for orientation. He disagrees with Kang and says even looking at a gun is intimidating.

“It’s a distraction. You came here for learning, not for carrying arms, right?” Bondada says.

Bondada says students should rely on campus police to protect them instead of taking matters into their own hands.

But Betty Leigh Miller, a parent from Atlanta, says campus police can only do so much to protect students.

“I’m all for it. I feel like – especially in the world we’re living in and everything that’s happening right now – the more people that can stop things from happening, the better,” Miller says.

Alpharetta resident Tammy Hagen’s daughter will be a freshman at UGA next month.

“I’m going to try to educate my daughter to be aware of her surroundings and to ask openly, ‘Are you carrying a gun?’ So she knows who is, who isn’t, how popular it is. I mean, I’d like to know. I don’t know what else to do,” Hagen says.

Hagen says her daughter is her first child to go to college. Along with figuring out housing, meal plans and the campus map, she says this is one more worry to add to her already full plate.

“For her to have to worry about her safety is concerning to me, and I’m sure I’m going to lose a couple nights sleep over it. I’m just going to pray that everything’s going to be okay. There’s nothing else I can do,” Hagen says.

The University System of Georgia released campus carry guidelines in May.