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No guns on state campuses

2 min read

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Sometimes a policy emerges that is popular with no one because both sides of an intractable issue split the difference and reach a compromise, and no one goes home completely happy.

But the revised weapons policy being considered by the State System of Higher Education seems bound to satisfy no one, and for good reason – it’s simply bad policy.

Until 2011, many schools in the PASSHE, which includes California University of Pennsylvania, prohibited the possession and use of guns on campus. Now, after attorneys said such a sweeping ban was unenforceable, a new policy is in the works that would allow guns in some parts of the 14 campuses within the PASSHE, most notably outdoor areas and parked cars.

Gun-rights absolutists, though, have slammed the proposal, once again peddling the canard that gun-free zones will somehow magnetically attract crazed gunmen, even though there’s no evidence whatsoever that any of the recent mass shooters picked their targets because they were in zones where guns are not allowed. However, the union that represents PASSHE faculty argued – correctly, in our mind – that an outright ban should stay in place. And for good reason. Though they are legally adults, many college students lack maturity and have not yet learned to master their impulses. Also, they are known to imbibe alcohol. The combination of heedlessness, drink and firearms seems assured to yield deadly results.

Peter Garland, the executive vice chancellor of the PASSHE, said the policy would be further refined. Let’s hope the end result is the officials in charge of the State System of Higher Education show some backbone and keep guns entirely off campuses.

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