There Were Blanks in That Gun! I Didn't Even Point the Gun at Him!
David Weigel | June 25, 2007, 9:42am
The University of Nevada system is going to let teachers carry firearms:
The tragedy of Virginia Tech is still fresh in the minds of many in the collegiate world and campus police departments from Reno to Las Vegas are trying to find a better solution. But students are dumbfounded by the plan to arm teachers. "So there would be no reason for a teachers to run around, just try to play hero with a gun," said Chris James, junior.
Still the Board of Regents plan would allow faculty take a 21-week course in Carson City. That class would cost more than $3,000 per person and the universities would pick up the tab. But it would use a legal loophole to essentially deputize the employee. That way they wouldn't break the law.
It's a brief article, but note how all the fears about the new plan involve teachers going all Travis Bickle and not any likely problems.
Read more reason on gun rights here.
LarryA | June 25, 2007, 12:57pm | #
From a story at the
Las Vegas Review Journal the profs will attend a “police academy.” The main purpose is to certify them as law enforcement, because you know only cops are competent to carry guns. (Same reason pilots are certified “flight deck officers.”)
The problem is that most of the 21 weeks will teach the professors how to use equipment they won’t have to do things the college doesn’t want them to do. One of the biggest lessons I teach concealed handgun licensees is
YOU ARE NOT A COP!
For instance, a prof is walking to class. The student ahead of her is walking funny. “Aha,” the prof says. “I remember that from cop school. Possible public intoxication. The school taught me to use my radio to call for backup, detain the actor, require ID, administer a field sobriety test, arrest and handcuff the actor, and request transport to the nearest jail.”
Hopefully she’ll think before acting. “Oh, wait. I don’t have a radio, or handcuffs, or backup, or transport. Besides, profs arresting students might be bad for faculty-student relations. Maybe I should just call the campus cop shop and let them handle it. I wonder why I had to learn all the cop stuff if they don’t want me to use it?”
Of course a concealed handgun class would only take about a day, but that leaves the impression that self-defense is not rocket science and almost anyone should be able to qualify. CHLs don’t have the authority a law enforcement officer has, but they have much more flexibility in handling a self-defense situation.
Both Ingersoll and Chris James say the issue isn't about teachers with guns, it's about loose campus security and the lack of officers on patrol.
Actually the “Gun Free Zone” philosophy worked as designed at VA Tech. Of course 32 innocent people died, so unless we want to consider that “acceptable losses” Something Must Be Done. Improving security to the point where it would prevent what happened in VA can be accomplished two ways:
1) Establish airport-style security checks at every building entrance. Enormously expensive and would require a much longer passing period between classes. Wouldn’t prevent shootings between buildings.
2) Establish a constant SWAT team presence in each building. Again, enormously expensive, and I doubt students who don’t trust profs with a handgun are going to want to be constantly surveiled by armored machinegun-toting ninjas who spend 99% of their time with nothing better to do than hassle students.
intended more as a deterrent to any teachers actually doing it than anything else.
Bingo. Exactly the TSA approach to arming pilots because, as we all know, if airline pilots have guns they’ll go into the cabin and shoot passengers.
Four of the university system's eight institutions have police departments, and police chiefs from all of them were enthusiastic about the proposal because it would give them more officers on campus.
...
After completing the academy, the employees would be under the direction of each school's police chief but would only be used when a person was on campus shooting at people.
The only way armed reserve police officer profs would have any effect on a shooter is if they were in a position to respond defensively. Calling them up afterward only provides more bodies watching the Police Line yellow tape.
UNLV Police Chief Jose Elique reiterated that in such cases, he would have all of his officers go immediately to the shooter instead of setting up a perimeter, as was done at Virginia Tech.
That should be interesting.
