Local college students want to carry more than books and laptops to school. They want the right to carry guns on campus.

Gun control advocates said the idea is crazy. But there are a growing number of college students who said all they want to do is feel safer and carry their concealed weapons to class.

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Mathew Cross is a graduate student at West Chester University.

The Iraqi vet is licensed to carry a concealed weapon in Pennsylvania and said he believes it makes perfect sense to take his gun from the firing range onto campus.

"There are enough violent crimes. It actually does warrant someone to have the ability to defend themselves," Cross said.

"I don't see why I should be forced to be sitting as a defenseless victim to some mad man who wants to leave his mark on the world," Jeremy Clark, a student, said.

Clark is a Villanova University law student and Army veteran. Both students are presidents of their local chapters of Students for Concealed Carry on campus.

"When walking to and from campus, I should be able to protect myself just like I am in a grocery store," Clark said.

Nationally the organization said it has 1,600 members at 500 colleges.

The student group was born after the massacre on the Virginia Tech campus last year. NBC 10 was told dozens more joined up after the Northern Illinois University shooting on Valentine's Day.

"I'd like to think that I would have been able to shoot the shooter first either before he killed anyone," Clark said.

"I think it makes no sense. I think the answer to gun violence is not more guns," Joe Grace, head of Cease Fire Pennsylvania, said.

Grace said if students want to take action, they should vote for stronger gun control.

"Unfortunately, we have some problems with alcohol use and binge drinking on college campuses. The last thing we want to do is introduce more handguns into that mix," Grace said.

Only the state of Utah allows concealed weapons on college campuses.

One study showed 75 percent of students would like to see tighter gun control. Villanova and West Chester universities are gun-free zones and have said there is no interest in changing their gun-free campus policy.

In April, Students for Concealed Carry plan to protest on campuses by displaying empty gun holsters.