Gun Laws

SoonerPoll is out with an interesting poll that shows a wide majority of surveyed voters don't think college students and faculty should be allowed to carry guns on campus. Some Republican legislators have pushed for guns on campus over the last few years, arguing it would make colleges safer. College presidents have disagreed. I wrote a commentary this week for SoonerPoll about what I think the poll numbers mean. You can find that post here.

Also, be sure to check out my latest Oklahoma Gazette commentary about raising college tuition as taxes get cut again.

Can you imagine encountering groups of teenagers openly displaying their loaded guns in holsters some future night in Oklahoma City?

That could soon be the reality here under a bill sponsored by state Sen. Steve Russell (R-Oklahoma City), pictured right. The bill, if eventually signed into law, would allow anyone 18 years or older to openly carry guns in holsters without a license and without training. The bill passed the Senate in a landslide 36-8 vote. The House yesterday passed an amended version of an open-carry bill that essentially defuses the issue, but now it goes back to Senate.

The bill was promoted at least partially as a Second Amendment issue by Russell, according to media reports. It doesn't allow people to openly carry guns in places that forbid the practice, such as college campuses, but the bill is absolutely unnecessary and problematic.

According to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun violence, a poll shows that a majority of Americans oppose open carry and believe it would make them feel less safe. That majority probably doesn’t apply here in one of the reddest states in the nation, but there are still many Oklahomans against open carry.

The Brady Campaign also makes this point:

Women across all groups oppose open carry broadly - 76 percent of women of color, 68 percent of urban women and older women, 59 percent of suburban women, 55 percent of younger women and a majority of rural women.

Will people walking around with visible, loaded weapons here drive away tourists or make some people afraid to go out? That’s entirely possible. It will also lead to more guns on the streets on any given day, and that could lead to more shootings. Police officers might find it difficult to immediately separate the bad guys from the good guys in a crime incident. What about inevitable gun misfirings?

Essentially, the open-carry philosophy lacks basic common sense and tacitly promotes gun violence. But this is the way the political winds are blowing on the prairie these days.

Does anyone think the Second Amendment extremists will stop with this bill? Will there be attempts in the future—maybe even next year—to allow people to openly carry weapons in all private businesses and public institutions in Oklahoma? Yes. The gun lobby will not stop until openly carried guns, holster or not, are allowed everywhere and there are no licensing, training or background-check requirements for gun owners.

This much is certain: The new Oklahoma under complete GOP rule will be armed, dangerous and ready to shoot.

Those Oklahoma legislators who might be thinking about pushing a bill allowing students and faculty to carry concealed weapons on the state’s college campuses should pay attention to a recent gun incident at a Los Angeles high school.

According to media reports, a 17-year-old student at Gardena High School was recently arrested when a gun he was carrying in a backpack accidently misfired in a classroom and hit two 15-year-old students. One of the students, struck in the head, remains in critical condition.

Two of the most operative terms in the incident for anyone who teaches college in this state right now are “student” and “backpack.” As I can personally attest, and this is more than anecdotal evidence, there are thousands of students who carry backpacks on college campuses in this state.

So if we get “carry on campus” here, how many backpacks will be filled with guns? How many guns will misfire? How many guns will be used directly to shoot someone?

In the past, state Rep. Jason Murphey (R-Guthrie) has tried to pass legislation that will allow students and faculty to carry concealed guns on campus in Oklahoma, arguing it’s a protection issue. Murphey has said he won’t introduce such legislation this year, but that he does expect someone in the Senate to sponsor a bill, according to a media report.

Even if you allow that Murphey’s main concern is protecting students and faculty from shooters like the one who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech in 2007, there is still much wrong with the idea of arming our campuses here or elsewhere.

Here’s a rundown:

(1) There absolutely will be gun misfires, and people will get tragically shot in classrooms for just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

(2) Some students and faculty members, even if they are licensed or certified, might not have the police skills to take down a shooter. What if they misread the situation? What if their actions actually increase the number of shots fired?

(3) How will police or even a faculty member or an administrator know who the bad person is if suddenly there are two or three weapons getting fired in a classroom or in a hallway or in an office foyer?

(4) College campuses will always be places where many students undergo a lot of transition in their lives. This transition can often create temporary emotional tension. This emotional tension shouldn’t get mixed up with guns.

Chancellor Glen Johnson has rightfully announced his opposition to any “carry on campus” legislation that gets proposed. Count on the state’s college presidents to also oppose it.

By all means, let’s secure our schools and colleges and make them safe, but let’s do it in ways that make sense.