SB174 Could Save My Life: Supporting Campus Carry
I’m a sophomore at the University of Alaska Anchorage and every time I step foot on my campus, I’m not as safe as I should be. Doorways are adorned with signs reaffirming this fact to a would-be mass shooter. Students, staff and faculty complying with UA policy are all sitting ducks. While a mass-shooter style event is unlikely, statistics show that the possibility of a young woman like myself being subjected to a physical or sexual assault while on my way to or from class is not unlikely and has in fact been the terrible reality for some.
The Alaska State Legislature shouldn’t need to waste their time reining in the University of Alaska’s Board of Regents who’ve acted beyond their authority. UA Regents have no business denying me my God-given right to defend myself. The outright ban on concealed carry by the BOR’s policy is entirely unconstitutional and that is why the Alaska State Legislature must act by passing SB174. Article I, sec. 19 of the Alaska State Constitution affirms that neither the State, nor any political subdivision of the State (aka the UA BOR), shall deny or infringe the individual right to keep and bear arms. The Board of Regents has acted in direct violation of Alaska’s State Constitution which makes their present policy unacceptable.
SB174 does nothing but change where a concealed firearm can be carried, it does not change the requirements for obtaining or owning said firearm. The argument that college students are incapable of safely handling a weapon on a college campus belies the fact that these same adults carry a weapon in equally crowded public spaces, without incident. This bill simply allows law-abiding and then policy abiding folks like myself the ability to defend ourselves at school just as we may in other public areas.
I often hear that the “allowance” of concealed carry would distract from the learning environment. I vehemently disagree. I couldn’t tell you the last time I noticed someone carrying a concealed weapon. That’s the whole point; it is concealed. It’s equally bogus to say that professors will be too afraid to give out an earned poor grade to a student due to the possibility that they are carrying a weapon. If anything, instructors should feel safer knowing that they are allowed the means to defend themselves.
I hate to repeat a cliché, but it’s true that “when seconds count, police are only minutes away”. The average shootout lasts approximately 3 to 10 seconds. How anyone could think that a shootout between an armed citizen and an armed assailant (who are only shooting at each other) is scarier or more threatening than a mass shooter executing defenseless victims at point-blank range by shooting them sometimes several times in the head (as occurred in the Virginia Tech Massacre), for minutes while waiting for police to arrive is beyond me.
Truly, my favorite argument against campus carry is that “the answer to bullets flying isn’t more bullets flying.” Yes, I am sure that’s why when police arrive on the scene of an active shooter event they don’t bring any guns whatsoever. They just “hug it out”, or employ some other equally ridiculous fantasy based solution.
Choosing to carry a gun in any situation is a personal choice that everyone must make for themselves. It includes accepting responsibility for the consequences of drawing your weapon. When faced with a threat to one’s life, students, just like every other person in most any context, absolutely have the right to defend themselves. The University of Alaska’s Board of Regents has over-stepped its bounds and needs to follow the law. Senator Pete Kelly is attempting to require them to do just that with SB174 and he has my continued support. There is no legitimate reason for a law abiding citizen to be prohibited from carrying a concealed firearm for self defense.
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