By Dean Weingarten
Arizona – -(Ammoland.com)-
An online poll arkansasonline is showing the strong support for allowing people who can legally carry concealed weapons to carry on campus in Arkansas, just as they can in the rest of the state.
The question is:
Should the UA System allow concealed-carry at its schools?
Currently the poll is at 92 percent for restoring the right to bear arms to public property that is part of the University of Arkansas system. 8 percent are against the proposal.
On line polls measure the ratio of those who are interested enough to answer an online poll. The results here are typical. Second Amendment supporters typically outnumber those who push for more restrictions by 3-10 to 1. In this case the ratio is now over the 10-1 ratio. This poll is asking a fairly clear question about the desirability of allowing the exercise of a basic Constitutional right on public property.
People in Arkansas tend to be strong Second Amendment supporters. It is not surprising that they would support this small, incremental step to restoring a right that many believe they have always had.
The poll in Arkansas is topical because legislators around the country are debating whether to restore Second Amendment rights to institutes of higher education. Last year, a campus carry bill passed the Arkansas House 66 – 25. It was killed in committee. Campus carry was supported by Governor Hutchinson.
An associate dean of an Arkansas graduate school, and a history professor wrote an article debunking the fears of the higher education lobby. From arktimes.com:
If you work at a Texas college and are worried by the prospect of having guns in your classroom, relax. The new campus-carry law changes your risk of gun violence very little. I can almost guarantee that if you have a few semesters of teaching under your belt, at some point there have been students with guns in your classroom. If those illegally armed students were not moved to violence by the content of your course or the statements of their fellow students, it seems highly improbable that a new group of legally armed students will prove to be more volatile or violence-prone than their scofflaw peers.
Texas public universities are in the process of constructing rules for campus carry that comply with the Texas law passed last year. From the star-telegram.com:
Texas A&M University’s proposed new campus carry rules include few major restrictions for handguns and will allow the weapons in classrooms and dormitories.
The proposed rules have been approved by Chancellor John Sharp and A&M System legal staff. They will be reviewed by regents later this month. State law doesn’t require board approval of campus carry rules, but does allow regents to amend the rules if they disagree with them.
Institutes of higher education have become centers of “progressive power”. Legislation that insists that they respect rights guaranteed by the Constitution, threatens the basic assumption of that power; that experts know what is best and that the government should not be limited.
Campus carry will likely come to Arkansas, sooner or later.
©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
About Dean Weingarten;
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
As long as they’re trained and licensed!
As much as I believe in the right to carry, when I see some of the college students that get interviewed on news programs, I worry about their ability to take on the responsibility.
True, but the vast majority of those nut cases would faint at the sight of an actual gun.