Sunday, June 5, 2011

Students, Guns, Dorms... Oh My!

In the debate over the Nevada Campus Protection Act, The question has been posed; "what do we do about guns in residence halls?"  "What if the permit holder's room mate objects to firearms?" To this, I say,  welcome to life as an adult.  There are going to be a lot of things you are not going to like, but you will just have to learn to live with.  You do not get to change room because you don't like your room mate's race, religion, sexual orientation, political affiliation or national origin.  You shouldn't be able to choose your room mate based on their desire to exercise their second amendment right either.  Truth be told, they would agree not to use their firearm to save your life if it came to that.

I highly doubt there are many students living in the dorms that qualify to hold a CCW permit, and even fewer who will actually be issued.  If the rare circumstance that this scenario does occur,  my suggestion is this;  If the firearm is not carried on the person,  it must be secured in a safe.  I have take no issue with the president setting a policy that requires the permit holder to own and use a particular type of safe or even a specific make and model, but lets be reasonable,  the safe should cost no more than $300.  Yes, I know that sounds like a lot of money to spend on a safe,  but we can't give them room to require that a student buy a $2000 safe to store one Glock 19.

The two safest places that a firearm can be is either holstered on the person or in a safe.  I take no exception to a policy that requires that anytime the firearm is not holstered to ones person it must be secured in a safe.

Should the administration be made aware of a student's failure to comply with reasonable protocols,  I have no issue with that student being ejected from the residence halls.  Unsafe handling and storage of firearms is extremely serious.  While the ownership and carry of arms is a god given right,  living in the residence halls is not.  If you show that you are irresponsible with your firearm in a dorm,  I take no exception to severe consequences being imposed.  As a gun owner,  I cringe every time I read a news story about some pin head doing something idiotic with a gun.  It only becomes fodder for the gun control crowd who likes to portray us all as dangerous people.

If you must know, not all gun owners are right wing, bible thumping, Tea Partying red necks.  gun owners are part of every walk of life, young, old, Republican, Democrat, gay, straight, black, white and every color in between, but that is a whole other article.

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