By Brendan O’Reilly
The Virginia Tech massacre has caused campuses nationwide to reevaluate the measures they take to keep students safe.
The University sent an e-mail to the entire Hofstra community the day after the massacre to communicate emergency information and reassure students that their safety is being kept in mind. The letter revealed that Hofstra’s Crisis Management Team, that makes plans for crisis scenarios, met to review its plans.
In a “gun-free zone” like a college campus, how do you stop a gunman? In Virginia, if you are 21 years old and a state resident you can purchase a handgun. With a concealed weapons permit, you can carry it around nearly everywhere, except at Virginia Tech, where the school’s policies forbid weapons.
The Hofstra University Crisis Management Team may want to consider arming all public safety officers on campus. Some students, who lack faith in the ability of campus police, say they would feel less safe knowing the men and woman in brown uniforms and Stetson hats were packing heat. Others, like me, think with the necessary training, the officers could keep students, and themselves, safer.
In March, two NYPD auxiliary police officers pursued a gunman in Greenwich Village. Unlike other New York police forces, the NYPD does not allow auxiliary police officers to carry guns. The auxiliaries are supposed to radio-in dangerous situations, rather than pursue them. By the time full-time officers had arrived and killed the gunman in a firefight, the auxiliary officers were shot dead. If they had guns, those slain officers would likely still be alive.
Public safety officers should not have to have all the burdens of a full-time police officer. But those who aren’t already familiar with how to carry and use a handgun safely, should have to undergo the proper training and start carrying firearms on the job. They should rely on the real police to handle gunmen, but during the amount of time its takes for the Nassau County Police to arrive they should be able to protect themselves.
Should that logic extend to everyone on campus who feels a need to protect his or herself with a gun? If you feel so unsafe at college that you need to carry a gun, find another school.
Michelle Malkin, a conservative blogger, called Virginia Tech’s policy that people other than campus police can’t carry guns a “ban on self-defense.” People can defend themselves in a non-lethal matter.
If Hofstra allowed students and professors with a concealed weapon permit to take their guns onto campus, they would not be used to stop rampaging gunman. Besides breaking into the vending machine that failed to dispense M&Ms after deducting 95 cents from Dutch debits, the guns would be used to settle petty arguments. College should be a sanctuary, not reminiscent of the Wild West.
People who never imagined they would ever own a gun will end up arming themselves once others on campus take advantage of the lift of the firearms ban. This cause-and-effect may sound like a stretch, but once you know your girlfriend’s ex has a gun you know you will likely head down the turnpike to Coliseum Gun Traders.
While one may have confirmed to all state laws in obtaining the weapon, the roommate who goes through one’s sock drawer did not. Students can’t even hang onto their laptops and iPods. It would be inevitable that someone would leave a gun somewhere and not find it upon return. Classes would never be held, as the campus would constantly be shut down to search dorms, cars and persons for lost firearms.