Professors, faculty, staff and some students flock to a lecture hall at Georgia Tech University in Atlanta. You’re here for a security seminar, because since July 1st, students in the state of Georgia have been allowed to bring pistols into class. That’s according to a new gun law called “Campus Carry.” It’s a win for the gun lobby because universities are actually very safe in Georgia.
Lynn Durham, vice president of the university, is trying to calm the tense audience. Georgia is the eleventh state in the United States with a campus carry law. Many professors had opposed it, but the Republican government ignored them. She thinks students who are over 21 and want to defend themselves with pistols once morest attacks on the way to the lecture hall should have this right. Now the professors are forced to adjust to an armed student body.
Secure campus with Campus Carry
Vice President Durham looks out at the crowd and sees the concern. Some have strong emotions, she says appreciatively, but whether you’re for or once morest campus carry doesn’t matter, she says, because it’s the law now. The goal is now a secure campus with campus carry.
The police chief of the university, Robert Connolly, explains to those present exactly which weapons are allowed. Pistols only, no rifles. And they must not be worn visibly. Facundo Fernandez sits in the front row. He has been a chemistry professor at the university for 15 years.
He doesn’t feel safe now, he says, and would like three tips from the police chief for professors. Because they are not allowed to carry weapons. They are sitting in their offices, Fernandez fears, waiting for armed students. The police chief doesn’t have an easy answer. While the law bans guns in professors’ offices, Fernandez says that’s not enough. The fear that a student with a gun might go berserk is just there.
Angry students hit the table
Professor Fernandez says he has had many angry students in his office complaining regarding a grade. They would have banged the table angrily.
James Turner also discusses the impact of campus carry on his office with colleagues. He’s an employee and wants to bring a gun too, but he’s not allowed to. He thinks it’s a bad law.
He might walk around with two pistols and a glass sight with no problem. But he’s not allowed to keep a gun in a locked drawer in his office. In case something should happen.
Gunman gunman killed 32 people in Virginia in 2007
Everyone here knows that mass shootings have also happened at universities in the USA. The worst was at Virginia Tech in 2007, where a gunman killed 32 people.
On the other hand, one student who can hardly wait to finally carry his pistol in class is Michael Robinson. He’s wanted campus carry for self-defense ever since he got his gun license. Campus carry has made some fundamental changes for professors at Georgia public universities, says chemistry professor Fernandez. He says that like police officers, professors now have to accept risk as part of their jobs.
