MU Lobbies Against Concealed Carry

[Administrator]

MU Lobbies Against Concealed Carry

From the Marquette Tribune:

While the debate over carrying concealed weapons on college campuses has heated up this year, Marquette has maintained its position of opposing weapons on campus.

The shooting tragedies at Virginia Tech University and Northern Illinois University have raised debates across the country over concealed carry on college campuses. Recent crime incidents on Marquette's campus could spur more discussion.

Wisconsin and Illinois are currently the only states that do not allow concealed carry of weapons.

Marquette would fight for an exemption on college campuses if legislation repealing the ban were introduced in Madison, according to Mary Czech-Mrochinski, director of governmental and community affairs in the Office of Public Affairs.

"(We would) want an exemption consistent with university policies," Czech-Mrochinski said. "If new legislation regarding concealed weapons is introduced, we will continue to work with legislators to ensure a safe campus environment."

The student handbook says students cannot "possess, use or store firearms, ammunition or weapons of any type … in the residence halls." Students can store weapons used for "recreational purposes" with the Department of Public Safety at an off-campus location, the handbook says.

The university employee handbook prohibits staff from carrying weapons on university premises unless, like DPS employees, they are authorized to do so.

No concealed carry legislation was introduced in the previous Wisconsin state legislative session, which ended in May, Czech-Mrochinski said. However, concealed carry bills were introduced in 2003 and 2005.

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[wannadiesel]

No guns were allowed on the VT or NIU campus and look how that turned out.

It seems so obvious to me that a big reason why these sickos shoot up schools is that they know that by the time a cop shows up to stop them, they can kill a whole bunch of people. It's like having a cheat code in a FPS video game for them.

[Administrator]

Doesn't make a lot of sense, does it? They can't carry, and there are huge crowds of students. Talk about easy targets. Ridiculous.

[t-boe]

I think a "no concealed whackos" law would work better. If you appear normal, but are secretly nuttier than a squirrel turd, you aren't allowed on campus.

Monitoring student activities closer would help. I know there would be an outcry of privacy invasion, but you pay to go there and choose to stay. If you don't like it leave. When I'm on base or a missile alert facility I'm subject to search at all times.

[AlanGifford]

I tend to think that freedom works best. I think there are a lot more good people out there than bad, and that's partly why I think the Second Amendment is such a great thing to have. wannadiesel has it exactly right: they already had a ban on guns at the VT and NIU campuses, and yet, by some unknown force, guns appeared on campus contrary to law! How can this be? Umm, maybe because criminals don't obey the law!

Snooping on students is a bad idea. There are all kinds of problems that come up when some people have access to others' private information. Just look at the recent story about the two employees who came forward about the government phone-spying problem: they said that there are many cases of workers just listening in on personal (sometimes very personal) calls that are clearly not a security interest. And I have to wonder how many times an actual security threat goes unnoticed due to workers listening in on innocent conversations.

You can't just have a group of people trying to determine who's a "whacko" or who isn't; this is college, many of them could be considered "whackos". As Chef of South Park says, "Children, there is a time and place for everything... and it's called college."

I know there would be an outcry of privacy invasion, but you pay to go there and choose to stay. If you don't like it leave. When I'm on base or a missile alert facility I'm subject to search at all times.

A big problem with this is that it's not just the students/parents paying for them to go there. Any state school receives tax funding, and it is morally wrong to use tax money for purposes that infringe peoples' rights. And seriously, tell me you aren't trying to compare going to school with being at a military base or missile alert facility.