Add any Colorado public university as a place I do not wish to teach:
Jerry Peterson, a professor of physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder and chair of the Boulder Faculty Assembly, said he would cancel classes if he found that someone had brought a firearm to class, according to the Daily Camera.
Although Peterson said he was only speaking for himself, Philip P. DiStefano, the chancellor at UC-Boulder, sent out an e-mail Tuesday to faculty members that they could not shut down a class if a student with a concealed carry permit brought a gun.Uh.
More than 200 campuses in six states currently allow concealed carry in some form, Burnett said, be it campuswide or only in certain areas.
Davis X. Machina
No interest in earning the Cost of Freedom Medal?
Some American you are…
Comrade Dread
No, my toddler has a God-given right to pack a 9mm with his lunch.
maya
Well then. It must be OK to pack heat in the chambers of the Colorado Supreme Court, no?
dr. bloor
The alternative would be to take a weapon of your own, place it on the lectern before you begin, and explain to the audience that your bizarre action has been necessitated by their institution’s bizarre policies regarding weaponry on campus.
As a bonus, you can expect nothing but softballs during the Q&A following your talk.
Chyron HR
Ha ha ha, silly Tom Levenson. You cannot into DougJ that easily.
Anoniminous
Don’t worry. Nothing bad can happen.
Normally Lurking
OMG it is coming true: The Graduate Student’s Guide to Automatic Weapons:
http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/shivers/autoweapons.html
Have I lived to see the day when this is no longer funny?
Doggie D
People who celebrate weapons are typically the same people who celebrate the individual right to be able to speak one’s mind (disproportionally Alphas).
It is those who seek to deny human bio-diversity who are the ones who try their best to shut people up (disproportionally Betas, Omegas). When confronted with Truth, these people violent. This is an almost universal rule in late phase democracies dating back to the time of Socrates.
trollhattan
@Tom Levenson–I’d imagine Ye Ole Perfesser would be happy, nay, thrilled to compare weaponry with his students [sic] at Tennessee. Why are you such a wuss?
Also, too, NYC cops were responsible for all the bystander shooting injuries the other day at the Empire State Building. I can only imagine the scene had a couple dozen folks in the crown had also been packing.
“An armed society is a
politedead society.”whidby
No doubt that permitting concealed carry on campuses will cause the murder rates to skyrocket, the same way they have in all of the states that allow concealed carry generally.
The Moar You Know
Oh hey, BoB has returned. Welcome back, my brick oven man.
In reality, were I this professor, I’d quit, and get very vocal about the reasons why.
And yes, “reasons” – one, the chancellor just kicked the idea of tenure in the teeth, by insisting that the professor does NOT have control over his classroom environment – and two, of course, being that next week some Young Republican Nazi Scum is going to start open carrying to his class to prove to the liebrul dirtbag hippie scum professor that the Second Amendment is the only one that counts.
jh
OT,
The Republican Party Has a Reagan Hologram But Are Scared It Would Upstage Romney
http://tinyurl.com/9t78zms
Violet
Zevon. Nice choice.
JWL
Wussy fuckin’ eggheads.
Pack your own heat, Einstein, and your worries are over.
It’s as simple as that.
Rafterman
AS a CCW license holder and a college student I feel like I can make a valid point here. Those who carry concealed are far more likely to obey the law. Google ccw crime rates, lemme know what you find.
If there are already 200 campuses that allow some form of carry, why hasn’t there been a rash of shootings from students, who dissapointed with their grades, killed their professors?
Also, If any of you are active on reddit, there was a NYPD officer on there the other day. he made a good point: “Any average CCW citizen who practices more then twice a year pretty much has most of the department beat in terms of training.”
I would link to the reddit thread, but I don’t wanna get stomped on by the spam filter.
trollhattan
Compare and contrast.
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/08/california-bill-to-extend-open-carry-law-to-unloaded-rifles-get-assembly-ok.html#storylink=cpy
Zifnab
Part of it is a bluff. The vast majority of college kids aren’t packing. But the NRA can turn what is a common-sense prohibition on guns on campus into a new issue they can use to milk their base for money. I seriously doubt anyone at Colorado University will even notice the ban was revoked.
But the other part of it is just cold stupid ideology. Republicans will fight for their gun rights because that’s what Republicans do. At this point, the 2nd Amendment is like your favorite sports team. You don’t need a reason to support it, you just want to know that your team is winning. And when Republican can score an easy victory, they’ll take it.
maya
@Comrade Dread:
More child appropriate.
Linnaeus
@trollhattan:
There’s a gun-rights group over at Daily Kos called “RKBA” that posts diaries and such on the subject, which as you might guess, leads to some very heated discussions. Anyway, a few of the gun owners who participate in those discussions have claimed that they are better shooters than professional police.
MBunge
The problem here is not the law. The problem is that anyone who wants to carry a concealed weapon with them to class is either paranoid or just a damn fool.
Mike
Publius39
Only gun nuts with no critical thinking skills think that an armed society is a good idea.
dr. bloor
@Rafterman:
Did that officer go on to add that he’d love the assistance of one of you ultra-law-abiding CCW folks during the next street-level shooting he’s involved in?
Needless to say, commenters at the Blaze seem to think it will be a good thing when commie-pinko guys like Peterson pack up and take their grant money with them.
General Stuck
It’s the lingering old west streak of libertarian whatever. Even here is NM, a very blue state overall, I see people every day packing pistola side arms in the open. There is also a conceal carry permit, but most just strap on their 6 shooters and head to town. I don’t want to exaggerate, as it is not highly common, but not uncommon either.
Anoniminous
Some gun owners are more skilled than the average police officer so anyone should be allowed to carry guns.
Excellent example of the Quantification Fallacy.
FlyingToaster
Tom, my parents moved 20+ miles in 1972 because they’d started locker searches for guns at the (now defunct) George Caleb Bingham Junior High, KCMO. Where I would have attended in 1973.
Six years later I was a student monitor for a locker search for contraband at my suburban high school. No guns in the lockers, but at least 6 boxes of ammo were found that day.
None of this is new.
mai naem
I don’t understand why the physics professor just doesn’t take advantage of the situation and go into the physics of shooting. Velocity, speed, weight, matter etc. etc. Why does he hate his American students so much?
Rafterman
@dr. bloor: You can read the thread yourself if your interested. The point was to counter the idea that only the police are competent enough to carry firearms. I myself try to avoid shootouts on the street. It seem like you believe that CCW holders are very eager to get in major gun battles in the blink of an eye?
Amir Khalid
@Rafterman:
Do you bring your weapon to class? If so, why? If not, why not?
J.Ty
In Ireland, in Lebanon, in Palestine and Berkeley…
cathyx
@Amir Khalid: It depends on who is sitting next to him.
trollhattan
@Linnaeus:
I can believe it (the claim, that is). The argument’s conceit lies in the confusion of marksmanship versus decision-making under extreme duress. Your local gun range does not teach you how to single out and engage the “bad guy” amongst a crowd of panicked civilians, other officers and one or more criminals (how many, unknowable).
We learned that lesson well when at the Giffords shooting-murder rampage, the dude ran over to the incident with his gun and nearly shot the guy who had control of the murderer’s pistol.
I’ll leave discussion of NYPD shooting black men armed with wallets for another day.
Anoniminous
BTW, it’s “Thompson”
trollhattan
@Anoniminous:
Friends call him “Tommy.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpvJTRnSeJM
RSA
And a lot of that decision making (I’m mostly extrapolating from talking to military folks, but I’ve heard the police side a little bit) is about defusing a situation rather than shooting someone dead. For example, there’s a good deal of interest these days in strategies cops can adopt in dealing with and even identifying mentally ill people who might otherwise be treated like violent criminals.
In my classroom, if something really bad ever started to happen, I’d rather have an unarmed police officer or military person than an expert marksman.
jl
Everyone carrying guns just allows us all to live by Biblical principles, upon which these great United States were founded.
It’s in the book of Judges, right there in black and white:
“every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”
And we can see how great that turned out, with vicious tribal wars and various people scurrying from one burned out village to another after visiting righteous wrath on evil….
Oh, wait…
Rafterman
@Amir Khalid: I don’t carry in class.It isn’t allowed at the school. During the week the gun stays locked up in the schools safe. I go and get it on the weekends, return it sunday night.
MikeJ
Whether carrying a weapon in a classroom is a good idea or a bad idea is irrelevant. The question is who is in charge of the classroom?
There was a time when smoking in a college classroom would have been perfectly legal and I imagine there were even profs here and there who allowed it. Nobody ever tried to argue that a teacher couldn’t prohibit smoking in his or her classroom, even if it was legal.
If a teacher can prohibit the open carry of a Big Gulp, why not a firearm?
Captain C
@dr. bloor: Preferably an AK, or an AR-15. Or maybe a fully loaded minigun, affixed to the lectern.
? Martin
Jeez, Tom. Don’t overlook the literature on the subject before going all un-American.
And why do you hate the free market?
Marc
A carried weapon is an implied threat. In short: my freedom not to be intimidated by thugs with guns has value too. And, no, I don’t want to live in the sort of society where everyone has weapons. Normal people in normal countries don’t operate that way. The large majority of Americans no longer own weapons, and the fraction who do has been dropping steadily for decades. At some point we’re going to rebel against the gun nuts. I’ve lived for most of my life in places where people weren’t allowed to flash weapons, and in states where very few people have them. It makes me feel more, not less, free than living in gun nut country.
Linnaeus
@trollhattan:
Exactly. Being a good shooter in a law-enforcement situation entails more than just being able to hit the target (although, yes, that is very, very important). It involves being able to assess the situation and handle real-life shooting scenarios. I’d be more inclined to trust those with professional training in such cases.
Anoniminous
@trollhattan:
But everyone knew
himher as Nancy.Geoff Robbins (@_TheGeoff)
Simple solution: teach the class while dressed in a full bomb-blast suit. You’re satisfying the right to carry, health and safety legislation and complying with the uni’s contract of employment by giving the (rather muffled) lecture. They’ll get the point when the complaints from the (feepaying) students roll in.
Amir Khalid
@Rafterman:
Okay. If it were permitted, would you carry in class; and if so, why?
Ronzoni Rigatoni
I can preach until the face blues, but handguns do not save us from the killer. I can’t believe that any law enforcement officer who has had any experience in crisis situations involving handguns wants any extraneous “help,” particularly in crowds. We’ve done training in choosing an appropriate target, setting and shooting, and we often shot up the “good guys” in the heat of the moment. You just don’t have the time to deal with this when the “bad guys” are killing everyone in sight. I would think that the NYPD guys have been through this “training.” We see the results. BANG BANG BANG and hope for the best. This is not firing range shit.
Snarki, child of Loki
@The Moar You Know:
It’s a physics professor complaining. If a student can pack a gun to class, the prof should be able to bring in a nuclear warhead.
dr. bloor
@Rafterman: @Rafterman:
I said no such thing, nor do I believe it. But a CCW with a gun when something like the ESB happens is at best a neutral presence (if s/he is smart enough to stay holstered) and far more likely to be a net negative. Did your supposed NYPD officer have anything to say about the accuracy of CCW’s when the paper targets start shooting back at close range?
Parenthetically, I know a few CCW permit holders, and I can safely say they all find the notion of carrying a gun in places like classrooms and churches to be idiotic.
Rafterman
@Amir Khalid: Probably not. It would be one more thing to worry about on a campus where nothing happens. Concealing a firearm in classes would just be a hassle.
The other problem I can see with carry on campus is drinking. It’s easy to put the guns away at home if a friend and I want to drink. There’s not many places to put a handgun in a dorm room, i’d be worried about some drunk fuck finding it and putting a hole in the wall or somebody.
Rafterman
@dr. bloor: My previous comment couldn’t be edited in time. You can read the thread yourself to find what he said: http://www.reddit.com/r/guns/comments/yxx0w/nypd_officer_ama_all_questions_regarding_12lb/
I’m glad your CCW friends agree with you so you can post it on the internet.
Richard
Hell, they should now start selling protective bullet-proof gear at UC-Boulder bookstores, so everyone can show up to class looking like James Holmes did in that theater. You never know when a gunfight might break out in class, not to mention the possibility of accidental discharges. You can’t be too careful.
Anoniminous
@Ronzoni Rigatoni:
No kidding. The statistical average handgun combat range is 7 to 10 feet. That stat has held true for decades. The statistical average of rounds fired to target hits is 25%.
Turn it around and we see in average combat situation 75% of fired rounds miss their target at 10 feet. Since the stats are heavily weighted to police reports, and police have a modicum of training, the fired/hit percentage for untrained shooters should drop dramatically meaning more bullets flying who knows where. This is shown by the same police reports when, compiled, give a 13% fired/hit percentage for criminals.
pragmatism
When does the trustafarian hunting season open on the CU campus? Easier to get them when they’re out of their Range Rovers on campus.
e.a.f.
I am so glad I live in Canada! We don’t take glocks anywhere like Americans do, to school, to church, to the store. When Canadians are carrying a glock they are either a cop or a gangster or competitive shooter.
I am not saying there aren’t illegal guns out there, but you get arrested in Canada. Taking guns to class in Canada, well we all remember what happened in Montreal.
If it weren’t so true about the guns in class it would actually be funny. I can’t imagine giving hormones with feet a gun to go along with it. I guess that is why Canada has a lower murder rate than the U.S.A.
Thank god for gun laws. People kill people with guns. You maybe able to outrun a knife but a bullet, not so much.
gbear
@General Stuck:
Well Johnny Cash has some very good advice about this very subject, commie that he is.
e.a.f.
@Rafterman: I’d suggest you look at the over all murder rate in the U.S.A. & then compare it to Canada’s. We don’t allow guns in class, we don’t allow them in church. It makes life so much easier for all of us. We just don’t have to worry about guns all that much. We have a nice civilized country. Of course I wish they would hve gun control in all of the U.S.A. because any illegal guns in Canada usually come from the U.S.A.
e.a.f.
@Rafterman: I’d suggest you look at the over all murder rate in the U.S.A. & then compare it to Canada’s. We don’t allow guns in class, we don’t allow them in church. It makes life so much easier for all of us. We just don’t have to worry about guns all that much. We have a nice civilized country. Of course I wish they would hve gun control in all of the U.S.A. because any illegal guns in Canada usually come from the U.S.A.
e.a.f.
@Rafterman: I’d suggest you look at the over all murder rate in the U.S.A. & then compare it to Canada’s. We don’t allow guns in class, we don’t allow them in church. It makes life so much easier for all of us. We just don’t have to worry about guns all that much. We have a nice civilized country. Of course I wish they would hve gun control in all of the U.S.A. because any illegal guns in Canada usually come from the U.S.A.
e.a.f.
@Rafterman: I’d suggest you look at the over all murder rate in the U.S.A. & then compare it to Canada’s. We don’t allow guns in class, we don’t allow them in church. It makes life so much easier for all of us. We just don’t have to worry about guns all that much. We have a nice civilized country. Of course I wish they would hve gun control in all of the U.S.A. because any illegal guns in Canada usually come from the U.S.A.
danimal
Dr. Tom @ top
Until there are economic consequences for crazy laws, the crazies will keep passing them. I know this comment was partially in jest, but state legislators start becoming a lot more practical once the Chamber of Commerce starts complaining. See also: Boycott over Immigration Policy, State of AZ.
Villago Delenda Est
I can tell you one place where you’d better not be packing heat, permit or no.
Any US military installation.
They take “gun control” seriously there.
Villago Delenda Est
Speaking of firing ranges, do you remember that scene in Magnum Force where they’re at the firing range in a competition, and Harry hits one of the cop silhouettes (and loses the competition as a result) and someone remarks “he hit a good guy.”
The unspoken thought of Harry is “did I?”
JR in WV
The term is “concealed carry permit”. This means the prof should not be able to tell if someone is carrying, because CCW permit holders endeavor to “conceal” their weapons.
In my CCW safety class one thing I learned was that it is important to conceal your weapon well. Showing your weapon could be called brandishing, for example. It could make you a target, as well.
So I don’t usually carry a weapon when I’m wearing a tee shirt and a pair of shorts, although apparently it is possible to hide a pretty powerful pistol in your under-ware. Sounds uncomfortable to me.
A CCW permit also shows an officer that you are known to your sheriff not to be a felon or subject to a restraining order, else he would not issue the permit.
Actually, I don’t carry a firearm most of the time, but I have the permit in case I need to travel and want to take a pistol with me, wherever I am going. Most states have reciprocity with other states, so that one’s CCW permit is valid in other states. Check with your state’s attorney general for a list of which CCW permits are valid in other states.
You need to be aware of those states’ laws, and be careful to obey those states’ laws while passing through. My permit isn’t valid in Texas, so I can’t carry a weapon around. But you don’t need a permit to have a weapon in your vehicle, or when carrying your weapon directly from your vehicle to your residence. This could be from your boat to your trailer, or from your airplane to your home, from your truck to your motel room, etc.
Anyway, from the instructor’s example, a person could have 2 or 3 weapons and no one could tell. He asked us to vote on how many he was carrying, and we were all wrong. Pesky ankle holsters!
Be careful out there, I am. That’s another reason why I got a permit, I’m careful, and old and feeble now…
smintheus
@Rafterman: Why wasn’t there a rash of crimes being committed in classrooms before concealed weapons were allowed? Doesn’t that invalidate any argument for their usefulness in a classroom.
As for the situation in New York, if armed bystanders at the Empire State building had opened fire on the shooter, the resulting shoot out would still be going on days later with everyone on the streets shooting at everyone else. Brilliant thinking.
talabama
@Linnaeus: you guys realize that the ‘professional training’ is maybe stationary target shooting once a year and possibly some force-on-force every couple years? Most police are just clerks with guns, which makes sense since most never need or use them. Or doesn’t make sense insofar as why they all have a gun? I don’t understand why you guys assume a badge will give them superior decision making skills under stress.
As an aside, I know a few cops who shoot IDPA or IPSC, which – while the targets don’t shoot back – does force a bit more realism in moving, using cover, and identifying ‘bystanders’ (no-shoot targets). They do this on their own dime because they enjoy it, but also because they feel their mandated training is insufficient. These sorts of additional training wouldn’t exist without the civilian component.
Mnemosyne
@talabama:
Police departments are supposed to be teaching patrol officers skills not just in using weapons, but in de-escalating situations and calming people down.
There’s not a lot of evidence that they’re actually doing it or doing it successfully, but that’s supposed to be a large part of police training and a big part of their jobs.
talabama
@e.a.f.: I cannot let poor statistical reasoning slide in an education related thread. CDC faststats gives the US non-firearm homicide rate at 1.8 per 100k. Taking the entire number of canadian murders (2010) and the population (2011) we can estimate an entire rate of 1.6 per 100k, so the US non-gun rate was larger than the total Canadian rate. There is no reason to assume every firearm homicide in the US (3.7 per 100k) would have been avoided with more gun control, people will find a way. The point is that there are plenty of other factors. There are a lot of guns in canada, which could be used for murder if the inclination existed.
Paul
This is not the right time to have this discussion…(yes, this is snark).
double nickel
I can’t believe Americans are even having this argument. You’re fucked up. End of story.
Rafterman
I’m to hammered to argue in this thread anymore. Usually my hammered posts get deleted on this blog. But, hopefully since I’ve made an actual contribution to this thread this post will stand agaisnt the baleeted hammer.
Good arguing with you guys.
Double nickel, I am fucked up. Cheap vodka is what did it to me. plastic handle bottom shelf. Good fucking stuff.
karen
Hey at least you’re guaranteed a good grade that way.
Phoenician in a time of Romans
@Captain C:
“Attention class – there is a small amount of C4 placed under each one of your seats…”
AHH onna Droid
@talabama:what is your point, man? You haven’t ‘refudiated’ a d-mn thing eaf said.
AHH onna Droid
@Rafterman: pardon, monsieur, mais le mot juste est ‘tore up.’
Wow, that was a quick flounce following token resistance. Question: will he stick the flounce?
Rafterman
@AHH onna Droid:
I had to translate that shit bro. Since I think you’re disagreeing with me, fuck you. The only person I didn’t rebut was some friggin canadian. If you can offer a rebuttal to my posts, my hammered ass wil be glad to argue with them.] You think I’m giving up cause i’m to drunk to type coherently? Fuck that, I’ll argue with you on the emails. Find some way so we can continue a debate over the email, rather than some thread that is wquicklly going to the bottom of the page. Especasily following thtat mormon fuck giving a speech
What points do you care to make?
Rafterman
@AHH onna Droid:
Yeah, I don’t really wanna double post but here we go. My Bro AHH, I’m sure we agree on almost everything except gun control. Hopefully we can understand each other here. Despite that fact that you posted some french shit that I didn’t understand. The only foriegn language I know some phrases of is Somaoan, Makavele pepelle kele low agai. is how it’s pronounced. I don’t know how to spell it. Anyway, lemme know if you wanna email this shit, cause I will be glad to argue with you, despite the fact taht the semester is coming up. Classes are easy the first week anyweay.
currants
Any idea whether those 200 campuses are public, private, both?
talabama
@AHH onna Droid: except pointing out his entire argument – Canada has a lower murder rate and is safer because of stricter gun laws – is not supported by data. The US’s non-firearm homicide rate is 113% of Canadas entire murder rate. Assuming the best case scenario that firearm homicides would not simply shift to homicide by other means, the US is still much more dangerous than Canada. There are other differences that explain the higher homicide rate in the US.
e.a.f.
@talabama: I don’t know why canadians would be less inclinded to murder than americans? We don’t even have capital punishment & life sentences well its 25 yrs & then you apply for parole.
As to the stats, well you still have a whole lot of gun murders. You see its soooo easy to pull out a gun & shoot & sometimes even poor shoots kill others. My point is we in Canada just don’t have the guns the Americans do & we have a lower murder rate. If you look at Japan, its even lower. We may have similar rates of murder when it comes to non gun murder but its the gun murder which really gets people kill in the U.S.A. Not to mention the number of children who access their parents guns & then kill some one by accident.
The one thing I do know is you can out run a person with a knife or bat but you can’t out run a bullet.
as to the number of guns in Canada, yes we do have guns & most of them are illegal & they came from the U.S.A. People trade our mary jane for coke & guns. I am hopping in the not so distant future mary jane will be less illegal in Canada so it will become worth less than a gun.
Thatgaljill
@Zifnab:
Except they have also designated dorms for upper classmen who have gun permits.
Herbal Infusion Bagger
So…non-gun homicide rates are almost the same (within 15% of each other) between U.S. and Canada? How do you think this supports your assertion that the killings from gun-related homicides (which are over twice as common as non-gun homicides) would still occur?
Having a non-gun homicide rate within 15% doesn’t show that the U.S. without guns would be “much more dangerous” than Canada. Those rates are remarkably close to each other. There’d be more variation in that rate from U.S. state to U.S. state (say, between Oregon and Georgia) than between the U.S. and Canada.
locoparentis
Under Colorado law, state run universities and colleges cannot prohibit CCW on campus. The right to bear arms is an enumerated civil right under both the CO and US constitutions and while CCW is not included as a civil right in either constitution, under CO law that right was extended to any law abiding citizen who applied and was vetted to carry.
The inevitable conclusion is that Prof. Peterson is attempting to deprive those students who carry concealed weapons legally of their civil rights.
The diatribes against CCW at the university are similar to the arguments used in the South by the White Citizens Council during the Civil Rights Era to deprive Blacks of the vote and education in state universities. They rely on unproven facts (i.e. “Negroes are not smart enough to vote or go to a white man’s college”) and appeals to prejudice (“Only gun nuts with no critical thinking skills think that an armed society is a good idea”) while ignoring the law and the Constitution. Their proposal that the very presence of CCW will lead to illegal acts is similar to what the Republicans use as an excuse with voter ID laws and other attempts to disenfranchise minorities.
CCW permit owners who carry are a minority, one asserting a civil right, and the CO Supreme Court has stated that they have the right to carry while attending school.
Professor Peterson may as well be Leander Perez.