For those of you that don’t know, I am currently employed by Texas A&M University, which is, of course, in Texas. What some of you may not know is that Texas is one of a few states that is currently looking at a law allowing residents to carry concealed weapons, including handguns. It is being debated in the legislature as we speak. This will potentially mean that all residents over the age of 21 are eligible to go through a background check, qualify on a range, and go through a safety course which concludes with their ability to carry a weapon in college buildings. This is different from the current law, which allows students to carry them on the campus but not indoors. The new law would prevent them from being carried in bars and at sporting events (at least in its current iteration). There has been some interest in addressing the issue of guns being stored in residence hall rooms, but the final details of the bill are still being worked on.
A lot of people are talking about the safety of our students and what happens if there is an active shooter situation, in which the emergency responders are looking for anyone not in a uniform with a weapon. I understand all of these points, but for this post, I want to focus in a different direction. I want to talk about teaching civility, education, and discourse in a land where students carry guns.
First off, I am not the type of person who believes that if this bill passes, students are going to start shooting them into the air to celebrate getting an A on a test or resolve roommate conflicts by shooting one another in the foot. I do, however, think that adding a weapon into an equation changes the dynamic of a lot of things. For instance, do you think that the same level of disagreement will happen over one roommate being a night owl and the other being an early riser if one roommate has a gun on the desk? Violence isn’t inevitable, but can act as a deterrent to certain disagreements. What about heated issues in a classroom? Will those be able to happen with the hidden wonder if a student is armed? I would hope so, but am not positive.
The other thing that is worth considering is what about our student staff that has to confront situations? I am thinking about my RA staff, when they are on duty, they are often asked to address situations of alcohol, noise, or general shenanigans that occur in the building. How do we support them if they are walking into a room that may or may not have armed and drunk residents in it? Do we have police come in for all confrontations now, or do we train and arm the RA’s?
Overall, I think my main concern with this bill is the number of questions it leaves un-answered and the challenges it presents to student affairs administrators in writing policy and doing our job in an environment with armed students. Maybe we should be taking some extra time and exploring these questions before we jump in and try to learn on the fly, because in my opinion, trying to figure it out when the cost of a mistake is a student life is not worth it. If we do explore and come back to the same law, then at least we have taken the time to figure it out.
I would love to get some discourse going on this topic in the comments section. What are your opinions on the topic, and how do you think student affairs divisions should be responding to this?
As the person who has been researching this for our department, I can assure you that we’re researching, talking, asking questions…it’s definitely been a learning experience.
Just to throw another question in there – what about the faculty and staff members who elect to carry their weapons on campus?
And a fact to remember is that the law requires that the weapon be concealed unless drawn to be used in very limited capacities, primarly in self-defense or in the defense of another person. But does that apply to res hall rooms too? Questions continue to abound.
But, higher ed is having an impact on this legislation here in Texas, at least. Recent articles show that one version of the bill has lost some support due to pressure from universities and the desire from some of our congressmen and women to allow public schools to make their own policies regarding carrying on campus. Texas A&M is not specifically mentioned, but I know that in the recent student elections, the majority of students voted to say that they did NOT want weapons on campus. Here are some recent articles.
http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/04/12/2995985/guns-on-campus-bill-clearly-not.html
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iQAm3tuCPK4fzl4Z82s4xTzlB1qw?docId=11930483321948b79472c24acba0d32a
http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/04/guns-on-campus-in-senate-stall.html
We’ll continue to see what unfolds. In the meantime, thanks, Tom, for bringing this up!
Great stuff Maggie, thank you for your insight and research. I think it is an interesting debate, because each side has its own opinions about what the other side is upset about. I think it will be interesting to see where this goes in the next few months.
Thanks for reading!
Great job on this post. As I exit the state, it will be interesting to see how the law makers consider Residence Life and Housing. Many of my same concerns you addressed well. As I understand the concern of having emergency responders who could respond to active shooters, you raised a great question regarding “teaching civility, education, and discourse in a land where students carry guns”. It might be possible, if lawmakers work with higher education, to explore the issue establishing emergency responders on campus. Yet, exploring does not automatically mean allowing persons to conceal and carry. Again, it will be interesting to watch.
Thanks for reading Sharee. I agree, at the very least it will be interesting to watch. Based on Maggie’s comment, it would seem that the lawmakers are listening to higher education, so lets hope they continue to do so.
Speaking from a student perspective, while I can not speak for all students, I can give my personal perspective as a student on a public university and on a residence hall staff.
I honestly would not feel safe on a campus where concealed carry is allowed, especially on a college campus. While we are technically adults, college is a unique and special time, where like I said on the panel the other day, in my experience fellow adults of my age group do not have the capacity to think through our decisions in how the affect us in the long run.
College is also a time when young adults are more prone to use mind-altering chemicals (drugs and alcohol), which completly change how a student may act.
Because of this, I would not feel safe, especially as an RA, going on rounds particularly on weekends, or going out to northgate, etc.
I see the points of students for conealed carry who say that they do not feel safe not being able to carry a gun.
But to me, that fear is on the probability of a student carrying a gun who shouldn’t be going through a distress. But to me, allowing concealed carry just increases the liklihood of that possibility.
If a student tells the dean that they are disturbed in a class, by say, even students reading the batt instead of paying attention to the professor (seriously happened in my oceanography class). To me this would be a lot worse than the batt being read in class.
I haven’t done a lot of research on this, but hear is my opinion as a student and student worker.
Great points Leah. Thank you for sharing. As I said in the post, I think it adds an interesting dynamic to all sorts of interactions on campus. There are lots of questions that we haven’t explored yet, and I just hope we have an opportunity to do so before it is fully implemented.
Thanks for reading (and PS: I am super excited to be working with you next year, gonna have some great 1:1′s)