National debates about gun control are all the rage these days. Lately, debate has moved closer to Grounds as the Virginia General Assembly recently put forward House Bill 79, which would permit concealed carry for faculty members at all public colleges in Virginia, even if the institution itself objects.
Current University policy allows law enforcement officers to carry weapons but prohibits any faculty member or student from possessing a weapon on Grounds. The proposed bill would change the policy to permit any faculty member with a concealed carry permit to carry a weapon.
This policy is unfair and unsafe on two levels. First, it infringes on the University’s right to make its own security policy for its students and faculty. How can the Virginia General Assembly force its views on public colleges when it has been cutting the funding these institutions receive from the state for years? Here at the University, the state provides just 9.9 percent of the academic budget. In comparison, tuition comprises 34.6 percent of the University academic budget. If students and alumni provide that much more than the state, shouldn’t they have the deciding vote on whether the faculty of the University can carry concealed weapons? How can a decision as big as this one be made solely by people in Richmond who are not representative of the desires of the student body? This is concealed carry without representation.
Furthermore, this bill would compromise the personal safety of students relative to the current status quo. Rather than making students safer, guns transform potentially non-violent situations into violent ones because of their ease of use. Putting life-or-death decisions into the hands of untrained University employees in the hopes of reducing violence is a shortsighted decision that trivializes the training police officers receive before being allowed to carry. To say that an online video and a multiple choice quiz are good enough to qualify someone as prepared to potentially injure or kill someone is foolish.
I personally would feel less safe if HB 79 were passed and I knew people around me were carrying weapons in a supposedly safe space. There is no reason we need this and a multitude of reasons we don’t.
Republican lawmakers either sincerely believe HB 79 would make campuses safer, or they proposed this bill for purely political reasons. I am inclined to believe Republican lawmakers in Virginia want a way to bring some red-blooded conservatism to a fancy, liberal college campus where guns aren’t allowed, all in the name of safety. With colleges being criticized as heavily as they are now in conservative media, this is an opportunity for conservative lawmakers to illiberally and undemocratically force their views on these liberal hippies about an hour west on I-64.
The hypocritical nature of this bill and the overtly political reasons for its appearance in the Virginia legislature are more than enough reason to demand that it must not pass. However, the loss in student safety as a result of the introduction of concealed weapons into the hands of inadequately trained academics is the primary reason why the students of public colleges in Virginia must stand up for our rights — our right to be safe and our right to choose how we want to ensure our safety.
Sawan Patel is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at s.patel@cavalierdaily.com.
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