A few weeks ago we had an "active shooter" exercise. The intent was to tell everyone what to do in case someone started spraying bullets at his or her favorite professors and/or classmates. Stripping away all the politically correct nonsense, it boiled down to a 21st century version of the Cold War "duck and cover" drill.
We're supposed to lock our classroom or office door, turn off the lights, and stay in place until notified otherwise by LEOs. I guess the idea is that the shooter will be discouraged by the lack of targets wandering around and go home.
Somehow I don't think it will play out that way.
I should mention that my campus, like the vast majority, is a gun-freee zone. This ensures that the only armed people on campus will be the bad guy(s) and the college version of mall cops. That doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling of comfort.
Others are concerned as well.
On Sept. 28, 2010, math sophomore Colton Tooley opened fire with an AK-47 outside and then inside the Perry Castaneda Library at the University of Texas at Austin. No one was hurt or killed, except Tooley, who took his own life.
Did somebody forget to tell Tooley the UT campus is a gun-free zone? I have been wracking my brain for the last few weeks trying to figure out how he was able to physically bring a gun onto the campus when the stated policy of the University is that students simply aren't allowed to have guns.
How many tragedies have to happen or almost happen, like on the UT campus a few weeks ago, before we wake up and realize that gun-free school zones make absolutely no sense?
Never before have I heard such foolish statements as when discussing gun policy on a university campus. Statements so ungrounded in logic as to be absurd.I teach in a city on the Texas-Mexico border, where gun-related violence is commonplace. I'm a veteran. I have a concealed handgun license. If I carry on campus I can be fired and prosecuted. If I even leave my firearm in my car - locked, secured, and unloaded - I can be fired and prosecuted. Even if there is no ammunition in the car.
"I just feel safer on a campus that doesn't allow guns, I like knowing that the person next to me in class doesn't have a firearm." How on earth is this a possibility? We don't attend a school surrounded by fences and metal detectors. Anybody who pleases can waltz onto campus armed to any degree they choose.
In fact, the only thing that gun-free school zones guarantee is that all of the law-abiding, responsible students at a university, and there are many, won't have a weapon. The people who break laws are the people we least want to carry a weapon, and those are the only ones who would carry a gun in a gun-free school zone.
Readers shouldn't misunderstand this article as critical of the police force. They work very hard to protect our campus and enforce laws. But the next most ridiculous statement I hear regarding gun-free school zones is, "it's the police's job to make campuses safe and secure, so students shouldn't be allowed to carry a gun with a concealed carry license."
The last time I checked, there isn't a police officer in every classroom on campus. That kind of a police presence might be the slightest bit overbearing, not to mention entirely impractical financially and administratively. The police are effective at enforcing laws and protecting students, but they aren't omnipresent. School shootings often lead to several tragic deaths before police can arrive and diffuse the situation.
It's clear, after several school shootings in the last few years, that gun-free school zones cannot physically or realistically keep students from carrying weapons. It's nice to pretend that if a University says students can't have guns, nobody has one, but it isn't reality. Universities have harsh policies against drug and alcohol possession, but students trample all over these rules on a regular basis.
The more important conclusion is that simply banning weapons on a campus doesn't work. There have been enough school shootings to show that no matter how firm a university's rules are about weapons, no matter how many signs and postings show pictures of guns with a circle around them and a line drawn through them, students still bring guns onto campus and kill other students. New solutions must be discussed. Whether this means concealed carry, more police officers, or preventative measures to help troubled students not resort to violence, something must be done to ensure a safe campus for students.
Many of my students are combat veterans, police, or border patrol agents. They carry weapons daily as a job requirement, and may have to make life and death decisions at a moment's notice. Yet once they go home and change clothes, in the eyes of the administration they suddenly become incapable of safely and responsibly carrying those same weapons. If they do carry, they are likewise subject to arrest and prosecution.
In recent years there have been attempts to convince the state legislature to pass a bill allowing concealed carry licensees and LEOs to lawfully carry on campus. This year, because of the preponderance of conservatives elected, there is actually a chance it may pass.
Until then, I'll continue to carry pepper spray and a tactical knife, both of dubious protection but arguable legality. Not much help against a shooter, but at least I can defend myself when dealing with students upset about their grades...
(Images and link to original source here.)
1 comment:
A few years back I opened the local paper one day to see a picture of two of my daughter's (female) classmates with their first rifle-killed deer. In addition to being happy for them, a valuable lesson was learned by my kid that day. Don't screw with those girls, they have guns and know how to use them.
It is crazy the number of Constitutionally-guaranteed freedoms we have given up, little piece by piece, in the name of our work, education, travel, etc.
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