Group fights for Second Amendment rights on campus

By Kevin Hardy

Thursday, April 2, 2009

The Student Involvement and Leadership Center officially recognized the KU chapter of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, or SCCC, as a student organization March 4.

The tragic campus shooting at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007, initiated a national discussion about campus safety and sparked debate on the best ways to protect students.

In order to protect themselves and others in the case of a campus shooting, students at the University of Kansas began advocating several months ago for the right to carry licensed concealed weapons on campus.

“The whole point of the group is that there are a number of individuals who can carry anywhere else but on college campuses,” Derek Miller, SCCC president, said.

Miller, Kansas City, Kan., senior, participated in a training exercise with the KU Public Safety Office in 2007 as part of a military group who acted out a campus shooter scenario.

Miller called the response time and effectiveness of the KU Public Safety Office “atrocious.” Miller said the training exercise inspired him to get more involved in advocating for Second Amendment rights on campus.

“I was scared,” Miller said.

Cpt. Schuyler Bailey of the KU Public Safety Office said officers were put at a disadvantage during training exercises to give the person acting as an assailant an advantage.

“One of the reasons we train is to identify any deficiencies in either the training or the participants and address each as needed,” Bailey said.

Eric Stein, Tpeka senior, is the state leader for SCCC. The state federation of SCCC represents students at all six state universities and two community colleges.

The state group was endorsed in June by the Kansas State Rifle Association. Stein said the group had more than 500 members in Kansas and more than 19,000 nationally.

“We’re growing every day, just little by little,” Stein said.

In 2006, the Kansas Legislature passed the Personal and Family Protection Act, which allowed licensed individuals to carry concealed firearms.

The law also said certain buildings could post signs on entrances and ban the carrying of weapons.

In April of 2008, one year and one day after the campus shooting at Virginia Tech, the Kansas Board of Regents passed a motion declaring the six state universities “weapon-free.”

Kip Peterson, spokesperson for the Kansas Board of Regents, said the state concealed carry law allowed certain institutions, such as churches and schools to opt out and not allow the weapons.

The Kansas Board of Regents chose to opt out, Peterson said.

This choice by the Regents bans weapons on all university properties including buildings, outdoors, and in parking garages.

Stein said the group would take the issue up with the state legislature, which originally passed the law allowing for the concealed carrying of weapons.

“The Kansas Board of Regents has made it pretty clear that they’re not going to budge on this issue,” Stein said, “so we have to go to the legislatures.”

Gina Burrows, vice president of Young Democrats, said she agreed with the Regents’ policy banning weapons on campus.

Burrows, Salt Lake City junior, said she supported people’s constitutional right to carry weapons, but didn’t think it was appropriate on college campuses.

“I, for one, don’t want to be sitting in class and wonder if someone next to me has a gun,” Burrows said.

Miller said he didn’t think people would feel uncomfortable with weapons on campus because the weapons were concealed, and no one would see them.

“I can guarantee you that the last time you went to the movies, someone was carrying a concealed weapon,” Miller said. “That’s the beauty of it — you would never know.

— — Edited by Andrew Wiebe

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Comments

flux12n21 (anonymous) says...

A thought:

The more guns there are, the more likely gun violence is.

Also, I would rather not be hit in the crossfire in a classroom, one shooter is bad enough.

April 2, 2009 at 9:32 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

EAStein (anonymous) says...

This is my response to this quote: "The more guns there are, the more likely gun violence is."

1.) What factual evidence do you have for that statement?
2.) This would be a good example of FACTUAL evidence:
- Since the Utah Supreme Court ruling in the fall semester of 2006, state law has allowed licensed individuals to carry concealed handguns on the campuses of all nine public colleges in Utah. Concealed carry has been allowed at Colorado State University (Fort Collins, CO) since 2003 and at Blue Ridge Community College (Weyers Cave, VA) since 1995. After allowing concealed carry on campus for a combined total of more than eighty semesters, none of these eleven schools have seen a single resulting incident of gun violence (including suicides), a single gun accident, or a single gun theft. Likewise, none of the forty ‘right-to-carry’ states have seen a resulting increase in gun violence since legalizing concealed carry, despite the fact that licensed citizens in those states regularly carry concealed handguns in places like office buildings, movie theaters, grocery stores, shopping malls, restaurants, churches, banks, etc. Numerous studies*, including studies by University of Maryland senior research scientist John Lott, University of Georgia professor David Mustard, engineering statistician William Sturdevant, and various state agencies, show that concealed handgun license holders are five times less likely than non-license holders to commit violent crimes.

April 2, 2009 at 5:25 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

EAStein (anonymous) says...

And this is my response to this statement: "I would rather not be hit in the crossfire in a classroom, one shooter is bad enough"

First of all, it wouldn't be called "crossfire" if you were possibly the person that the shooter is trying to murder... because to the murderer YOU are the target.

Second, Are you saying that you would rather sit on the floor and let a murderer walk up and end your life than to have another person in the class shooting that the murderer and just take the chance of being hit?

Putting it in simpler terms.. YOU are saying that you would rather be murdered instead of running the risk of being caught in the crossfire.

April 2, 2009 at 11:41 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

EAStein (anonymous) says...

"The state group was endorsed in June by the Kansas State Rifle Association. Stein said the group had more than 500 members in Kansas and more than 19,000 nationally." - Quote from article

Correction: The national SCCC group has almost 39,000 members

April 3, 2009 at 12:11 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Hunter (anonymous) says...

The Board of Regents may have a policy that bans concealed weapons on all university property, but it isn't legal. The Kansas Personal and Family Protection Act only allows the posting of buildings for no concealed carry, and that is it. If you are licensed you are free to carry your gun anywhere on university property that isn't a posted building or stadium and they can't do a damn thing about it.

April 3, 2009 at 8:39 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Steveu314 (anonymous) says...

Burrows is from Salt Lake City? I assume that is the one in Utah. Utah state colleges allow concealed carry on their campuses. They have had no problems with licensed faculty, staff or students. They have had no mass shootings either.

Given that history, which Burrows should be aware of, what is Burrows' problem? All the article mentions is a personal preference on her part. How many lives does she think her personal preferences are worth? One, two, thirty-two? How many rapes?

Carrying a weapon isn't just someone's personal preference. It is done, at significant cost and effort, to save lives and prevent serious crime. Crimes such as murder and rape. Years of experience shows that it works.

Does Burrows know that? Does she care? How about the Board of Regents, do they care?

April 3, 2009 at 9:45 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

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