COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Recruiting: JROTC/ROTC
Senator wants to allow students to carry guns on campus
Dana Beyerle Montgomery, Tuscaloosa News
Dec 14, 2007
Sen. Hank Erwin, R-Montevallo, pre-filed a bill for the 2008 legislative session that begins in February to authorize college students who are enrolled in ROTC and meet other conditions to possess guns.“The security of our 49,000 students in the University of Alabama System is absolutely a top priority,” said Kellee Reinhart, vice chancellor for system relations. “We haven’t studied this proposed bill, so it would be premature to speculate about its possible impact on our campus.”
Jacksonville State University President William Meehan said he opposes the bill.
“We don’t want everybody to carry guns,” he said.
Since JSU has a police training program, there are officers on campus who “meet the criteria who carry firearms and who are authorized to use deadly force,” he said.
Auburn spokeswoman Deedie Dowdle said the idea probably wouldn’t go over well with parents or campus security officials.
“I understand that our chief of security has concerns about day-to-day safety being compromised were individuals allowed to carry weapons ... but the university as a whole doesn’t have an ‘opinion,’ so to speak,” Dowdle said. “The concern is what makes most people safe most of the time, and most parents and security officers alone [do] not like the idea of untrained students carrying weapons.
Erwin reasoned that arming students could help in situations like the April mass-shooting at Virginia Tech, in which student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people over two hours.
“I was at Virginia Tech the next day and saw the hysteria and how the campus was shaken, and I thought had someone had a gun, that wouldn’t have happened,” Erwin said.
He said the armed churchgoer who shot a gunman in a Colorado church last week probably kept him from killing more people.
The bill already faces opposition from Sen. Bobby Denton, D-Muscle Shoals, who serves with Erwin on the Education Committee, where the bill has been assigned. Denton said Thursday he didn’t like the idea.
“My point is it’s DOA or whatever they call it on arrival,” Denton said. “Schools can hire security people and we don’t need students walking around with weapons.”
Denton said it’s possible that an armed student could have prevented most of the deaths on the Virginia Tech campus but “that’s just not practical” to allow weapons on campuses.
Tara Hutchison, a spokeswoman for Gov. Bob Riley, said he has not read the bill and had no comment.
Erwin’s bill would authorize students to carry firearms only if they are enrolled in an ROTC program, are licensed to carry a firearm, have no prior felony or misdemeanor convictions, are in good standing with the college, and complete a gun skills course. ROTC is the military science program training students to become commissioned military officers.
“I’m thinking of these folks who have served our country who would be natural first responders best qualified to carry a gun on a campus,” he said.
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