UI The Daily Iowan
07-26-07
Armed campus cops would make UI safer
Editorial
DI Editorial Board
Given that guns kill thousands of Americans annually and that the Justice
Department reports that a half-million non-fatal gun crimes were committed in
2005, limiting handgun ownership to law-enforcement officials seems a desirable
ideal. But in a country with more firearms than adult citizens (and where gun
advocates, unfortunately, have more Washington influence than police unions),
this is but a fantasy. Until society can rid itself of non-hunting weaponry, then,
small steps that help to at least contain shootings by rogue handgun owners are
in order.
Now, with the Virginia Tech massacre centering the national gun debate on
college campuses, both sides are digging in. Anti-gun-violence groups are
framing the incident as indicative of a need for further restrictive measures. But at
the same time, the NRA's "gun-enthusiasts" are calling for an all-out militarization
of the American citizenry, saying that if everyone on that campus was packing
heat, Cho Seung-Hui would have been gunned down after a few casualties. This
is possible; but the ramifications of such a policy, where every argument over a
stolen 30-pack of Keystone light could lead to a bullet wound, renders it
unrealistic. Still, beyond NRA zealotry, there are steps universities can take to
ensure the safety of their students. And one measure - arming campus police
with sidearms - seems a commonsense approach that could prevent, or at least
quell, a Blacksburg-like atrocity.
UI police are the only Big Ten police force not authorized to carry firearms while
on routine patrol; likewise, Iowa State University and the University of Northern
Iowa police are the only gunless officers in the Big 12 and Missouri Valley
conferences, respectively. The policies may be attributable to Iowa's relatively
low crime rate among U.S. states, but it seems anomalous nonetheless; a
campus rampage of Virginia Tech proportions could only be committed by
disturbed individuals, people whom, psychology experts agree, transcend state
borders, crime statistics, and sanity altogether. To be lulled asleep by the rolling
plains and corn fields here is to be fooled.
To that end, Charles Green, the assistant vice president for the UI police, has
advocated arming his patrol officers. What he recently pointed out, and what
makes his proposal commonsensical, is that UI police already have weapons.
However, they are locked up in the central station most of the time. Such a
stipulation, Green noted, may have in part facilitated the 1991 shooting at the UI,
in which disgruntled graduate student Gang Lu shot six people (killing five), then
himself, before police could load their guns. To put officers of the law at such a
grave disadvantage against a gun-wielding psychotic, and to have such arms but
keep them locked up and inaccessible when they're really needed, seems
indefensible.
Critics of arming the UI police point out that they already carry Tasers, which can
subdue an individual and give police an upper hand. But against a campus
rampage - the very event every university in America is looking to avoid - Tasers
are nearly worthless, if for no other reason than their usual range of 15 to 30 feet
pales next to that of a modern handgun.
Though the elimination of handguns - police excepted - from society seems
desirable indeed, it is unattainable at this time. For the short term, arming UI
police officers can mitigate the threat of violence to students, faculty, and others
who traverse the campus.