I am a member of one of the last oppressed and persecuted groups in this country. It's not because I'm white, heterosexual, middle-class or male. It's because I am a gun owner. I have chosen to take on the responsibilities associated with exercising one of my constitutionally guaranteed rights. And because of that, many people develop an unwarranted fear based on an ignorant point of view. Those who write policy for the university, apparently among the ignorant public, have codified this fear in a policy banning weapons on campus. So today, I'm going to explain to all of you why you need not fear me and my brethren, and why you should, in fact, trust us.
The first incorrect assumption many people make is that firearms are dangerous. It's not the gun that's dangerous; it's the irresponsible person holding it, just like the irresponsible person behind the wheel of a car. In the hands of a responsible and well-trained person, a gun is just as benign as anything else in a person's daily life. The tragedies we hear about, and the resulting statistics, which I'm sure someone will be mailing in tomorrow, can all be traced back to someone being irresponsible with a firearm.
Invariably, whenever one of these fools gets media attention, the emotional and irrational response from the public is to ban all people from carrying weapons. That's roughly equivalent to banning car stereos because of the idiot who has his bass turned up too high.
The reasoning behind allowing people to carry weapons is quite simple. Someone has to be responsible for public safety. Traditionally, this responsibility falls to the public. As long as people are responsible for their own safety, they ought to be able to arm themselves as well as they may reasonably expect their would-be attackers to.
There are those who would argue that the safety of the public should fall on the shoulders of the police. The fact is that the police have never been charged with preventing crimes, only with responding to them. If anyone out there is thinking we ought to have the police prevent all crimes, consider what that would require. A huge surveillance system would be necessary, meaning we'd all be watched constantly. In addition, there would have to be some way of making sure weapons didn't enter campus. That would mean closing off the whole area, only allowing people to enter through specific portals where they could be searched. I'm not usually one to get dramatic about things, but you have to admit that this sounds like a George Orwell novel.
The university currently has a policy that forbids weapons on campus. I can see two possible reasons for this; the first is to make the campus safer, the second is to make people on campus feel more comfortable.
Banning weapons on campus only makes the area more, not less, dangerous. With all due respect to those affected by recent events, we have to admit that had there not been a campus policy forbidding weapons, someone may have been able to prevent the College of Nursing shootings. The potential presence of properly trained, armed civilians creates the possibility that would-be attackers will be stopped before they harm others. With a disarmed population, like we have at this university, a criminal knows he or she can walk on to campus and commit a crime without any significant resistance. Again with all due respect, the tragedy at the College of Nursing only serves as proof of that.
I have to admit I can understand the argument that people should not feel intimidated by weapons on campus, and that by barring them we create a more welcoming atmosphere. However, that does not mean we must ban weapons completely. If the university were only to ban openly carrying weapons, those with Concealed Carry Weapon permits would still be able to carry weapons on campus, albeit concealed ones. That would have the added bonus of increasing the average level of training of those carrying on campus, since anyone who has a CCW permit in Arizona has at least taken the required class and gone through a background check.
The university's current policy on firearms is woefully inadequate at meeting the security needs of this campus. In all fairness, that is partly due to a public that is blatantly ignorant of the issues surrounding firearms in this country. The university would do well to enact a common-sense weapons policy before we see yet another tragedy in our midst.
Tim Belshe is not a member of the National Rifle Association. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.