The right to protect and defend on campus
Calvin College, a Christian Liberal Arts college located in West Michigan is one of the first colleges to allow their security personnel to carry weapons in the performance of their duties nationwide. (http://blog.mlive.com/kzgazette/2008/04/calvin_college_safety_staff_ma.h...)
As a professor here at Calvin College, I’ve been forced to revisit this subject on a number of occasions, most notably within my own classrooms as student discussions have taken a dramatic increase in their respective feelings and thoughts surrounding this change in institutional policy. Surprisingly, my informal polls within my classrooms have shown that students seem to be split quite evenly on whether or not this is a good idea.
Regardless of your thoughts on the matter, it must be noted that the whole idea of anyone carrying guns on college campuses is not something that should surprise anyone; how could it. Many people in this country come from public schools, and regardless of which institute of higher learner you end up in, many of us are already familiar with the security guards we have either seen in the news or first-hand in our high schools today. We have seen the increases in security at any airport, and can even debate the merits of airline pilots carrying weapons when they (and us) fly; guns are a constitutional right.
The debate has been going on for years previously, and I’m certain will continue in years to come. Some of the arguments that I’ve heard lately though focus in regards to the safety of the students, and how having guns on campus is unsafe for them. I’m not quite certain how these arguments are in favor of no weapons, but if historical events are any indication, the violence in the past were not perpetrated by any staff or faculty of any educational institution, but the students themselves. Other argument claim that students should be the ones carrying the weapons, since they are the most likely to be confronted with the violence to begin with… The same argument I used above is applied here too. Most (if not all) of the violence committed on the grounds of any educational institution have been initiated by students, or non-students (off-campus personnel), not staff or faculty of these institutions. I personally have not heard of too many professors of staff killing off their students (although I can think of a few times where the thought crossed my mind… sarcasm here abounds…).
As a military veteran, I am very aware of what guns, or any weapon, can do to the human body and mind; and as a professor I am very concerned with the safety of my students and myself. Even so, having the ability to defend oneself is of a higher priority than the ‘feeling’ that having a weapon on campus is something that is inherently bad.
Let’s have the right to defend ourselves, yet not to the point that fear pervades all aspects of our existence regardless of where or when we are confronted with violence. I don’t pretend to blindly follow the justification of violence with violence; or violence begets violence, but it’s nice to know that the mere knowledge that there is someone able to shoot back giving pause to the next person willing to act out their criminal fantasies in schools around the world… Good for Calvin!
