For the first time since 2013, a student-run cross-club political debate was held at Binghamton University, discussing topics related to this year’s elections.

Wednesday’s debate featured BU’s College Democrats, College Republicans and College Libertarians. The goal of the event was to inform students about what each organization felt was necessary to know before Nov. 8 election. Each group was given three minutes to speak about different topics — including gun control, abortion, immigration and education — followed by a few minutes to reply to each other with any questions or lingering responses.

The debate began with the topic of gun control across the United States, and the Supreme Court’s decision in June to strike down a law limiting concealed weapons that demonstrated a need beyond self-defense. Logan Blakeslee, vice president of the College Republicans and a senior majoring in history, said he believed that the law had been an infringement of rights.

“I think that is absurd, and I think it harms public safety,” Blakeslee said. “In general, it harms many people who want to simply have the right to own a gun. Without going into the subject of how this might relate to criminal activity, I do believe that the fundamental right of all Americans is to hold a firearm.”

In response to the College Republicans, Chance Fiorisi, president of the BU College Democrats and a sophomore majoring in political science, said he felt the issue instead lied with the violence that the unregulated weapons have been involved in.

“The thing is that this case is essentially allowing for regulations to stay consistent,” Fiorisi said. “But you mentioned infringement because guns have changed. Some laws are infringing on those rights, are creeping on those rights and are starting to restrict them because weapons have changed and the regulations have not.”

Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court, many political parties have debated whether or not abortion should be a constitutional right. Currently, whether or not an individual can have an abortion is decided on a state-by-state basis.

Shayne O’Loughlin, president of the College Libertarians and a junior majoring in linguistics, described his opinion on the ruling.

“When we think about abortion, there are really two steps to it,” O’Loughlin said. “There’s the termination of the fetus, and then there’s the eviction of the fetus. Libertarians are against termination, particularly against killing. So the answer that libertarians would go for — and the ethical answer — is that we believe that you should be able to evict the baby, but you shouldn’t be allowed to kill the baby, because otherwise we have blood on our hands.”

The College Republicans argued that there is nothing in the Constitution that makes abortion a human right. Celia Holden, a member of the College Democrats and a freshman majoring in political science, said that although abortion was not mentioned in the Constitution, the right to privacy, congressional districts, freedom of expression — or even women in general — were not either.

“It can and it will be argued that forced pregnancies are an infringement of our natural and constitutional rights,” Holden said. “No one is excited about getting an abortion, but it’s often better than the alternative. And I’m sure both of my opponents can agree that the government should not be able to make decisions for the people and the freedom of what is best for ourselves.”

Another question that was posed asked what each group believes is the cause of the rise of inflation, and what they believe are the proper steps that should be taken to prevent another recession. Sid Gundapaneni, a member of the College Libertarians and a sophomore double-majoring in economics and mathematics, expressed his opinion that these price increases are affecting some communities far more than others.

“People cannot afford food,” Gundapaneni said. “People are struggling. The wealthiest 1 percent are enjoying asset inflation while all of us are struggling to make ends meet or to get basic necessities. Food is more expensive than ever. Gas is more expensive than ever. And the 1 percent just keep watching as the stock market goes up.”

Blakeslee said he believes the rise in the inflation rate is more of a result of COVID-19 and the harmful effects that worldwide lockdowns had on the economy.

“We can attribute [COVID-19] as a major factor to why this inflation is happening,” Blakeslee said. “And yet, the strongest [COVID-19] lockdown enforcements on the economy have happened in blue states. With that in mind, I think the Democratic Party was always going to be the party that was most in favor of shutting down the economy, for under the justification of public safety, of course.”

The economy would remain a recurring theme in the debate, as Fiorisi later responded to the College Libertarian’s claims that “excessive spending” on issues like assisting Ukraine in their war against Russia was doing more harm than good for the U.S.

“If we let a country invade another country on pretenses that quite honestly don’t make any sense — and they continue to break international law, they continue to break human rights and continue to violate millions of people — then what are we as a country if we don’t step in?” Fiorisi said.

Editor’s Note (11/9/22): An earlier version of this article stated that Blakeslee is the interim vice president of the College Republicans. Blakeslee is vice president of the College Republicans. The article has been updated with the correct information.