Since the start of policy changes throughout the University regarding the removal of the concealed carry ban, student groups around campus have begun giving their two cents. A few ASUO Senate members have taken action of their own, creating a working group for a resolution to be presented at the Senate meeting Wednesday evening.
University law student Ben Rudin@@checked@@ and sophomore Jeremy Hedlund@@checked@@ are two of the four senators who are a part of the resolution and opposition to concealed carry on campus@@http://asuo.uoregon.edu/senate.php?a=188@@. This resolution is there mainly to state that the ASUO Senate does not support concealed and carried firearms on campus.
The group has been working on writing this resolution, which is supposed to be representative of not only the Senate, but of the majority of students as well.
“A lot of it comes down to students just talking to me this week, like, ‘Wow, people have been walking around campus for a month, month and a half with guns,’” Hedlund said. “And that doesn’t make me feel safe at school.’”
The biggest questions that come up in the discussion of this matter are safety and what makes a student safer. With two Virginia Tech shootings in a decade, some students are seeing more reason to keep firearms accessible.@@http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/12/virginia-tech-shootings-2-killed-including-police-officer.html@@
“If they’re saying they would shoot the shooter, they’re ignoring a few important things. Even police, with all their training, miss their targets over 80 percent of the time,” Rudin said. “Imagine untrained students shooting at each other in a crossfire.”
With all of the debate over gun use on campus, the Department of Public Safety comes into play. If a ban was put back into place, it would once again prevent DPS from carrying firearms, even though an official campus police force was authorized last November.
However, DPS Captain Ed Rinne@@http://www.kmtr.com/news/local/story/Campus-incidents-seen-as-impetus-to-give-DPS-more/3wDDpgkKO0C_b6rZmxuytw.cspx@@ has hopes for gun possession in upcoming years as a part of the six-year DPS transition.
“We know we won’t have firearms within the next year, but we are hoping for two years from now,” Rinne said. “But that will only be after discussions with the University and community.”
Because members of the working group disagree on the issue, it is not a part of the resolution. Instead they are focusing only on the concealed carry law.
“We might be asking the legislature to fix the issue,” Rudin said. “In a practical sense, it should be done in consultation with all stakeholders in each university.”
However, due to a short legislative session coming up in February, they are unsure of exactly what they can accomplish in that time. But they will continue to campaign.
“I just think weapons on campus is adverse to the mission statement of what we’re all here for,” Hedlund said.
Rudin agrees, adding the oddities of the effects of recent policy changes.
“If policies stay as they are right now, people will be able to have a gun on campus but not light a cigarette on campus.”