Staff at the Kernel must be very slow in moderating comments, or they have decided not to allow them to be posted. I posted two comments last week to the UK KY Kernel editorial 'For safety's sake, campus gun ban should remain," and they have not yet appeared . A friend forwarded me a comment he posted yesterday. I doubt it will appear, so, I post his comment here.
"UK is currently a deadly-weapons-free campus"
It wasn't just over a month ago according to the alert listed on the UK Police website:
"September 8, 2005
A male victim reported that at approximately 11:52 PM on September 7th he had been robbed at gunpoint while sitting in his vehicle in the Commonwealth Stadium Green Lot directly in front of Oswald Building."
It seems to me that you could just as easily declare the campus crime free and there wouldn't be any need for the police or their weapons. Unfortunately, one would have to ignore the fact that it isn't crime free, just like the Kernel Editorial Board must ignore the fact that there ARE deadly weapons on campus now in the hands of people willing to misuse them for their own gain.
The opinion of the Board seems to suggest that people smart enough to be accepted to UK are not intelligent enough to use a defensive weapon within the law. "Misperceived crime results in shootout!" does not seem to be a very popular headline yet this seems to be the sole reason to deny the entire student body the opportunity for self-defense. Why must the rest of us submit to your illogical wish that a better situation exists than the available data suggests?
So how do we make students safer? "Please Mr. Rapist, before you begin I just need to use that emergency phone over there and then you can continue." or maybe "Do you think we can wait just a moment before you proceed, with the increased size of the UK Police force I'm sure an officer will come by shortly."
This just doesn't sound any more feasible to me than simply declaring the place a weapon free zone.
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