Guns on Campus

On the heels of a debate over guns on U.S. college campuses, everyone's worst fear — no matter which side of the debate you were on — was realized. On Wednesday, a student at Dawson College in Montreal walked into a school building armed with a rifle and a handgun and started shooting. By the time it was over, he had killed one girl, wounded nineteen others, and shot himself fatally when confronted by police.

In August, an armed and deadly fugitive on the loose in Blacksburg — home of Virginia Tech — spurred a debate among students, faculty, and Virginia residents about the school's campus gun ban imposed on students, including those allowed by Virginia law to carry a concealed weapon. Virginia state law preempts all localities from enacting their own gun laws (except for some ordinances regarding the discharge of firearms, for example), but autocrats at VA Tech, and most colleges around the country for that matter, are loathe to think they are not in complete control over their mind-melting fiefdoms.

Then in September — only days before the Montreal shooting — the Utah Supreme Court, in a ruling that could have national implications, delivered a decisive blow to the University of Utah ruling that Utah colleges are not exempt from state law regarding preemption and therefore, may not institute a campus gun ban. In an article entitled, Gun Rights vs. College Rights, Michael Young, president of the University of Utah, was quoted as saying:

Our central argument is that within the context of the First Amendment, there is the capacity to control the environment within which the educational dialogue occurs, so we are within our rights to take steps that are central to the free and open debate that you need at a university.

First of all, colleges do not have rights. Individual people have rights.

It's not about 'academic freedom,' it's about personal freedom.

It's amazing how many people in so-called "higher education" cannot grasp this basic concept. Notice also he wants the "capacity to control the environment" to foster "free and open debate." Well, Mr. Young, it looks like the Utah Supreme court has declared a winner in the free and open debate about your illegal campus gun ban.

But what of our non-violent neighbors to the North? Gun laws and culture differ tremendously between the U.S. and Canada; concealed carry is not even on the table up there. But the tragic attack at Dawson College could not illustrate more precisely the fallacy that gun bans make campuses safe. What is it they want exactly? For someone committing crimes — including murder — to be charged with a campus code violation? So, in addition to the death penalty or life in prison if convicted, the attacker would also be expelled from school. Considering students like Kimveer Gill have resorted to killing people — and attackers don't often make it out alive — I think it's safe to assume they are not worried about returning to school to finish up their degrees.