At least one student at Georgetown University has the right perspective regarding how guns deter crime, and she is asking the college administration to take steps to ensure student safety by expanding Second Amendment freedoms.
“Laws restricting gun ownership will not prevent gun violence or end school shootings. For our safety, Georgetown University should arm campus police and the D.C. Council should allow students to carry firearms on campuses,” Amelia Irvine wrote in an open letter to The Hoya, the student newspaper.
That plea comes in the aftermath of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting, which has prompted relentless calls for gun control across the nation, even at a relatively safe university in New York, where students are saying campus police should be disarmed, which would leave students vulnerable to more crime.
Irvine has a more sensible understanding of things, pointing out that a recent walkout by pro-gun control students at her campus does nothing to make the campus safer, but “allowing students and Georgetown University Police Department officers to exercise their constitutional right to bear arms will.”
The university’s provisions for campus law enforcement officers is minimal. Under the “Security Policies and Procedures” section, it says officers are allowed to wear a protective vest, and carry a safety baton and pepper spray. As Irvine points out, such equipment allowed will provide little to no protection.
As she states, “GUPD Chief of Police Jay Gruber wrote in an email that ‘arming GUPD officers with firearms is a University executive leadership decision.’ We expect GUPD to keep us safe, but the university has not given GUPD sufficient means to protect students in an active shooter situation.”
Proliferating the gun-free perspective does not make students safer, but rather, Irvine said, “It leaves us vulnerable.”
