First, a little background. I'm a grad student at the Lake County University Center in a far north suburb of Chicago. This Center is on the grounds of a local community college, The College of Lake County, where I also take some classes in order to start a degree program (engineering) entirely different from what I've done previously. I spend about ten to twelve hours a week in classes at this campus.
The school releases a student-run newspaper called the Lancer Chronicle. In the latest edition there are two articles referencing the NIU shootings. In both, discussion of arming the school's campus safety officers is addressed with opinions on both sides.
I intend to draft a reply to both of these articles.
As I'm sure most of y'all know, Illinois doesn't allow civilian CCW. Of any kind. Unless you're one of Gover...er, Mayor Daley's aldermen, of course. That being said, with the ability for campuses across the country to defy state law and bar concealed carry on campus, would a school such as mine have the ability to do the same in reverse? The school is as much a public institution as Virginia Tech or many of the other state and federally funded schools throughout the country that, if I recall correctly, have been allowed to forbid CCW.
The reason I ask is because in my letter I want to propose the idea - one I know will never be accepted - that students would be in no more danger if both campus safety officers and our own student body were allowed to carry on school grounds. I won't make the assertion that we'll be safer but I want to dispel the myth that those of us who would carry would in any way present a greater danger to students than if we had the Grayslake Police Department patrolling the campus.
Thoughts?
The school releases a student-run newspaper called the Lancer Chronicle. In the latest edition there are two articles referencing the NIU shootings. In both, discussion of arming the school's campus safety officers is addressed with opinions on both sides.
I intend to draft a reply to both of these articles.
As I'm sure most of y'all know, Illinois doesn't allow civilian CCW. Of any kind. Unless you're one of Gover...er, Mayor Daley's aldermen, of course. That being said, with the ability for campuses across the country to defy state law and bar concealed carry on campus, would a school such as mine have the ability to do the same in reverse? The school is as much a public institution as Virginia Tech or many of the other state and federally funded schools throughout the country that, if I recall correctly, have been allowed to forbid CCW.
The reason I ask is because in my letter I want to propose the idea - one I know will never be accepted - that students would be in no more danger if both campus safety officers and our own student body were allowed to carry on school grounds. I won't make the assertion that we'll be safer but I want to dispel the myth that those of us who would carry would in any way present a greater danger to students than if we had the Grayslake Police Department patrolling the campus.
Thoughts?