Nevada Board of Regents votes against proposal to allow faculty and staff to carry guns on college campuses
On Friday, the Nevada Board of Regents voted against a proposal that would have allowed some faculty and staff to be armed on higher education campuses.
Regent and Las Vegas police Capt. Stavros Anthony championed the idea before it was voted down eight against and five in favor.
According to the proposal, any staff member who wished to carry a gun would go through special 21-week police academy training and would subsequently become part of a reserve officer program. The institutions would have paid for the program and the staff member’s salary. Staff and faculty would require approval from university and college presidents to enroll in the program.
The proposal was largely opposed by faculty.
This is an interesting situation considering the deadly shootings at Virginia Tech this April and the recent spate of guns being brought onto high school campuses around the valley. Although I can’t blame a staff or faculty member who wanted to ensure the safety of the students, arming them may not necessarily be the best way.
Besides a 21-week training program just seems a little minimal.
I’m hardly surprised by the opposition of the faculty and staff. After all, I doubt any one of them equated teaching students with packing a gun when they chose to be educators. The argument could be made that the individual ultimately would decided if he or she wanted to enroll in the program, but I can’t imagine being a student or even faculty member knowing that some of my peers were armed and presumably ready to fire.
