Letter to the Editor: Faculty response to gun law

I would like to reply to both of your writers, Ben Panko and Elliot Walden, about "Guns on campus."

As a faculty member, I may bring a perspective to the debate over guns that few students or colleagues share. I possess a concealed-carry license, up for renewal this year, though I have never carried a concealed firearm on my person. I got the permit to transport firearms to and from my rural property.

For several reasons, I think the bill in the General Assembly permitting faculty to possess guns on campus to be a terrible idea.

Qualifying for a concealed-weapons permit does not teach the gun owner to handle a firearm in a "tactical" situation such as what happened at Virginia Tech. The day-long class includes the basics of firearms and shooting, such as knowing the difference between a revolver and automatic, as well as firing weapons at paper targets on a shooting range. That, and a clean criminal record, are about all one needs to tuck a pistol into a purse or jacket.

The "training" in question bears no resemblance to how police and military personnel - or a campus shooter - would use a weapon. I do not like to imagine myself, or my colleagues, opening fire in a crowded room full of panicking students or staff in an emergency. This is a campus where students and staff often forget to lock their doors. Can we be trusted with guns merely because we carry permits?

A better crisis response would be to lock our doors and call our police force.

For faculty and students to possess concealed weapons on college campuses under any circumstances short of civil insurrection, invites more, not less violence.

As always in the debate over the Second Amendment, the phrase "well regulated" appears to have been an early victim.