Shane Wade
Opinion Editor
A couple of weeks ago, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported about the pro-gun Virginia Citizens Defense League’s planned demonstrations at state universities to protest efforts to ban the concealed carrying of guns in campus buildings.
Law can be a tricky thing, but my current understanding is that guns are not allowed on public universities’ campuses in Virginia. Although the issue of guns on campus resurfaces every few years or whenever a shooting occurs, I intend to resolve this discussion with a concise, comprehensive solution that appeals to both liberal academics and pro-gun groups.
Despite any personal misgivings I may have against the VCU police regarding bicycle policies, I trust their ability to resolve a crisis in an efficient and timely manner. I know that if a violent altercation involving weaponry occurred near or on-campus, they would be there, either to prevent it entirely or to prevent its escalation. That’s the primary reason I’m not in favor of having guns on campus. In the form of a regulated, qualified police force, we already have guns.
But to extend those same carrying rights to students, you have to suspend some logical though in order to believe that allowing students, certified or not, to carry concealed guns on campus is a wise decision. To be blunt, I find it hard to trust some students to dress themselves or bandage their own paper cuts, let alone wield a firearm. It’s trying enough for some students to turn off their phones before class, so it’s a stretch of the imagination to think they’ll be able to turn on the safety before strolling into a lecture. Allowing students, who come here to learn in a peaceable environment, to carry firearms on campus would be almost tantamount to declaring that the VCU police department is incompetent and campus is unsafe.
Proponents like the Virginia Citizens Defense League and Students For Concealed Carry would offer an argument describing a scenario where a gunman opens up on a classroom and a single student pulls out his gun, fires and brings down the gunman. But that’s an uncommon view of the situation that misses the obvious logical failings; including the possibilities that the gunman only had his gun because law allowed it and that the “hero” isn’t immediately shot. It also perpetuates the idea that only guns can protect against guns.
The conflict boils down to one issue: safety. Pro-gun groups want students to be able to defend themselves, and universities don’t want to pollute campuses with an air of potential violence by allowing students to carry firearms.
Here’s my solution: throwing knives. As the late newspaper columnist Molly Ivins said, “… I am not antigun. I’m proknife.” Call me crazy, but a solid arm and a knife to the arm or shoulder can be just as efficient in bringing someone down. Lift the ban on throwing knives, swords and all bladed weaponry and then we can consider lifting the ban on firearms. Call it an experiment, a testing period, whatever; let students wield knives, which also have practical uses, before we allow them to carry, let alone conceal, guns.