Advocates of looser laws concerning guns on college campuses say that students trained with a gun would be better positioned to fend off a host of potential crimes, from sexual assaults to a Virginia Tech-style mass shooting.

Nathan Scott, a former student at Florida State University who was shot in the leg in the school’s library by a gunman last November, said that having a gun would have helped him defend himself.

“If I had been armed, I would have shot the killer before he shot me, absolutely,” he said. “It’s ridiculous that students aren’t able to carry.”

But others wonder whether having armed students would instead make dangerous scenarios even more risky. Samantha Burtch, a senior at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, thinks a gun would make little difference in the midst of a violent sexual attack.