Note: Published in the Spirit of Jefferson 2/15/23
Who counts more if you’re a West Virginian, the responsible gun owner or the person who fears guns? On Wednesday March 1st, we got our answer. On that day, Governor Justice was “proud,” by his own word, to sign into law the so-called Campus Carry law that allows gun owners with concealed carry permits to bring their weapons onto college campuses.
He was attended at the signing by members of the NRA, legislators who had sponsored and passed the bill, and members of the Citizens Defense League, a pro-gun lobbying group. Absent were those opposed to the law, including Mary Hendrix, the president of Shepherd University. She and two other small college presidents had in January written to the legislature asking them to be mindful of the stress that guns on campus would create in their operations. That would be not just the emotional stress of students and staff concerned for their safety, but the financial stress the campuses would incur in order to enhance security.
The governor tried to offer some assurance to those in opposition to the law saying that “We just hope and pray that there’s never a problem.” Hopes and prayers as a deterrent to “bad actors” in other words. Those would be the same hopes and prayers that have been solemnly made after all previous mass shootings.
The FBI definition of a mass shooting specifies that there are three or more victims. There have been 9 such mass shootings at college campuses since 1966, the latest at Michigan State on Feb 13 of this year where 3 students were killed and 5 injured. The shooting at MSU, by the way, was the 71st mass shooting of this year. That’s 71 in 2 months and we haven’t hit the summer season when the numbers typically escalate.
Michigan State is where I graduated many years ago, before there were any mass shootings on any American campus. But it still felt personal when I heard about it.
But you have to understand that all mass shootings leave other victims in their wake, besides the dead. There are the physically injured, who often face expensive and lasting medical bills. In this case injured is often a pretty weak word. What’s a better word to use when the injury lasts a lifetime or disables a victim? The FBI doesn’t include the emotionally injured in its statistics, but these victims can experience symptoms ranging from PTSD to just looking over their shoulders for the rest of their lives.
But hopes and prayers aside, the governor then diluted his weak assurance by saying “We can’t ensure in any way that there won’t be a problem.” The governor has evidently seen the statistics that show a pattern of increasing gun violence in this century. Just in the 8 years between 2014 and 2022 there was a 240 percent increase in mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive. We went from 273 to 647 between those years. The trend is not heading down either.
I know full well the reality of guns in America today, the 2nd Amendment guarantee and all, and I have to respect that reality. But when we talk of the “pride” that gun owners and the governor feel about that part of our Constitution, shouldn’t that pride and the privilege of permitting millions of guns in the hands and homes of our citizens come with some sense of responsibility? Shouldn’t every right come with assurances for the welfare of those who have been scarred by guns and respect given to those who are legitimately fearful of them? Shouldn’t we be decreasing our anxieties instead of increasing them?
Too often we hear from those responsible gun owners that they have them for their and our protection. But the minimum of 2,600 victims of mass shootings in 2022 testifies to the fact that they’re not doing it very well. I haven’t even considered the much greater number of deaths and injuries that happen not from mass shootings, but from suicides, family arguments, hunting accidents, road rage, and especially criminal activity.
So when our legislature and our governor pass a bill that endows more rights to gun owners, shouldn’t they have included in that legislation some provisions that address additional safeguards on their use. Why, for example, didn’t the law include budgetary boosts for the increased security measures needed on campuses? Items that Hendrix and her colleagues mentioned that their current budgets would be strained to provide. The same points were later made by the presidents of WVU and Marshall University.
There’s a certain kind of arrogance that’s attached to gun culture that is dismissive of the majority of the population that wants to see more controls on guns. Justice’s comment is indicative of that arrogance. Here’s the law. Let’s hope it works. If it doesn’t, tough.
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