24 March 2011
cramer on campus safety and guns
Questioning Campus Safety's Gun Policy The following is an opinion piece published in The Bethel Beacon, the student newspaper of Bethel College, Indiana, my alma mater as well as where I currently teach. Bethel students, staff, and faculty with a valid Bethel email can access and comment on the article here. Others will have to simply leave their comments below. http://cramercomments.blogspot.com/2011/03/questioning-campus-safetys-gun-policy.html
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6 comments:
Would you feel more safe or less safe knowing campus safety officers carry guns?
I've been on this campus for around twenty years, and I can't ever recall feeling unsafe.
So I know my answer to the question--and it's not even close.
As a former student I can never once remember feeling unsafe on campus in three years. Part of this was my belief that no one - including campus safety - was carrying any weapons.
In fact, because of many of the points that David brings up, them carrying guns would have made me feel less safe. It is not because I had a fear that any campus safety officer might use it inappropriately - I knew them all have had confidence in them - but rather that guns could instantly lead to the escalation of a conflict with simply the threat of use.
As well, I think we have to consider what the effects would be in the community and the witness that it would have. Would one of the unintended consequences be that those who would seek to break in, steal and leave now feel that they need to arm themselves for fear of a safety officer with guns? And so now a situation that may have been more of a flight situation becomes more of a fight situation. I'm not as worried for the campus safety as I would be for the innocent students who might be in the way.
One of the things that we've seen throughout all of the campus shootings is that there is nothing that could have been done to stop it by the campus police, etc. It happens and it is a tragedy. But with all of the potential for danger that have been mentioned - does the benefit of arriving on the scene a few minutes earlier than a trained police force really make up for that? I would suggest not.
I would be deeply saddened, as would many of our anabaptist forefathers, that such a belief is being entertained, let alone seriously considered. As a pastor in the denomination who believes in non-violence I have serious reservations about this.
Should guns be allowed on colleges? Should Christians even carry guns, regardless of being at a college campus or not? These are the fundamental questions here.
For discussions on why students, faculty, and staff should not be forced to disarm simply because they arrive at their campus, I refer you to Students for Concealed Carry on Campus and in particular to this article regarding campus crime.
It is NOT a question of whether a person "feels unsafe" at a place—any place, not just a campus—but whether it is prudent to be proactive in providing for your own safety and that of other innocent people around you. How many students at Columbine would have said "I have never felt unsafe at school" on Monday, April 19, 1999? And how many students at Virginia Tech would have said "I have never felt unsafe on campus" on Friday, April 13, 2007? Again, it is NOT a matter of whether a person "feels safe" wherever they are. "Feeling safe" has nothing to do with 1) actually being safe, nor 2) predicting whether a violent attack (whether a gun is involved in the attack is irrelevant) will occur in the future.
As far as the question of whether campuses are *actually* safer when lawfully armed citizens are not required to disarm upon arrival at school, statistics demonstrate that campuses nationwide ARE safer when guns are allowed. John Lott has spent his career researching, documenting, and publishing his findings that where there are more guns, there is less crime. He is most well known, subsequently, for his book "More Guns, Less Crime" (ISBN 9780226493664). Recently, he addressed specifically the topic of guns on campuses, noting both that there has NEVER been a gun-related accident or suicide nor a shooting at any of the 71 American colleges that allow guns and that crime is notably lower after guns are allowed. Read his latest article for more: Should Bans Against Carrying Concealed Weapons Be Lifted On College Campuses?
(Continued, because for some reason my 4,026 character post was recognized by Blogger as greater than 4,096 characters…)
(…continuation)
Now, there are Christians who believe in non-violence, non-resistance, or similar principles. While I disagree with that viewpoint, people are allowed to maintain it. I am unfamiliar with Bethel's background and core beliefs, but if those fundamental values include a belief in non-violence/non-resistance/etc outside the campus environment, it would be appropriate to institute policies that put those principles into action on campus, to include the prohibition of students, faculty, staff, security personnel, AND law enforcement officials from the use of force, or threat thereof, to prevent or terminate the unlawful use of force by one person against another while on the private property that is the college campus. (If that would seem an absurd policy, perhaps the core belief in non-violence ought to be reassessed. If one ascribes to such a belief, one must ascribe fully to it and apply it uniformly to all people in all situations.)
As it relates to Bethel's course of action, here is what should happen.
If the core values of the institute include non-violence and/or non-resistance, the policy shall be enacted prohibiting the use of force or the threat thereof—with or without a weapon of any kind—by any person—student, guest, faculty, staff, campus security, or law enforcement—to resist any manner of criminal application of force on the private property owned and managed by the college.
If the core values do not include such a belief, the administrators must decide whether to embrace the fact that guns make people safer on campus just as well as off campus. As it is a private institution, the right is theirs to make and enforce that decision.
Either way, the principles of economics will dictate whether prospective parents choose to send their children to Bethel as they weight the pros and cons of the college.
So I know my answer to the question—and it's not even close.
I'm hoping sanity and Christ-likeness (He being one of those who pretty clearly seemed to "believe in nonviolence") will prevail and it won't actually come to us having an armed campus safety force. The police are already armed. "That is enough" (Lk. 22:38).
When I was at Bethel (graduated in 2006), I never felt unsafe. I don't think that would have changed if campus safety officers carried guns, although I'm not a huge fan of guns. I understand why people would want campus safety to carry guns, and I understand why people don't want them to. In my opinion, though, I don't think they need them (although, I could be wrong).
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