Risk or protection? Kansas Legislature reopens debate about guns on college campuses
If Mackenzie Haddix was old enough, she would be carrying a gun on the Emporia State campus.
“If I’m walking back home from one of my classes at 9 o’clock p.m. and it’s pitch black outside I don’t necessarily think that an emergency pole at the end of the street for me to push a button is going to help protect me if a man drives up, holds me at gun point and says ‘get in my car, I’m going to rape you,’” said Haddix, 20, chair of the Kansas Federation of College Republicans.
“I do believe if I was able to conceal carry at the age of 18 I could defend myself.”
The Kansas Legislature may grant Haddix that opportunity. Lawmakers are considering bills that would allow people as young as 18 to get a concealed carry permit in the state.
The bills would create a provisional license for people 18, 19 and 20 years old and establish reciprocity with all other states in the nation with concealed carry licensing, including those that provide permits to 18-year-olds.
In the process the Legislature is reopening a charged debate over guns on college campuses at a time when, following an armed attack on the U.S. Capitol, professors worry open and honest discussion will be rendered unsafe.
“There are no processes in place to mitigate this risk,” said Sanjay Mishra, president of University Senate.
In the current situation most students eligible to carry guns are upperclassmen in smaller classes who professors know well. New laws would change that.
“This could be an introductory 600 person class where I have no idea who’s sitting in one corner of the room and is offended by what someone else has said,” Mishra, a business professor, said.
While proponents point to self defense, critics argue that this increases the risk of suicide and homicide among young people. According to 2018 CDC data, homicide and suicide by firearm were the third and fourth leading causes of death among Americans 15-24 years old, after traffic accidents and unintentional poisoning.
‘The opposite of college’
In 2017, an exception to Kansas’s concealed carry law, which allowed college campuses to ban firearms, expired.
Despite pleas from colleges, faculty and students warning of accidents and dropped enrollment, efforts to make the exemption permanent failed in the state Legislature.
Professors added gun sections to their syllabus, and universities placed detailed descriptions of gun policies on their websites. The University of Kansas included statistics, meant to reassure students, showing that 59% of the student body was under 21 and therefore ineligible to carry a concealed weapon. Fewer than 400 students old enough to obtain a license lived in campus housing.
If the new measures pass, 91% of students at Kansas Board of Regents Colleges will be eligible to carry guns.
The Board of Regents did not respond to The Star’s request for comment. A KU spokeswoman said the university is “working with lawmakers to understand how this bill might affect our campuses.”
While campus carry resulted in relatively few gun related issues on Kansas campuses, students and faculty worry that expanded eligibility will increase the likelihood of harm.
In 2017 Kevin Willmott, a KU professor and Oscar winning screenwriter, made national headlines when he wore a bulletproof vest to class. Willmott said the constant presence of guns is unnatural, something he tried to demonstrate with the vest.
“It’s just the opposite of what college is designed to do for students,” Willmott said on Thursday. “This is the true beauty of education in terms of the freedom to totally express yourself. You can’t express yourself when you know someone in the class has a gun.”
Willmott said the change in 2017 made international students leery of coming to the university and prompted faculty members to leave. It creates, he said, an invisible threat that is particularly concerning for faculty and students of color.
“Black people all the time are shot by law enforcement or ordinary citizens because of these fears that they have of us,” Willmott said. “How could this not happen in this environment.”
Mishra, the University Senate president, said some faculty have asked for an increase in their life insurance policies. If the bill passes, he says he will spend more time in his office and less walking on campus where he can interact with students.
Current college students grew up with the omnipresent threat of school gun violence. They watched news coverage of Sandy Hook Elementary School, Virginia Tech, and Stoneman Douglas High School. They ran active shooter drills during the school day.
Logan Stenseng, an executive member of KU Student Senate, said students are hyper-aware of the threat. Guns, he said, add one more unnecessary stressor to their lives.
Though Stenseng said he grew up around guns, he catches himself walking campus and wondering whether the person he passes is armed. The expansion, he said, will make most dorm residents eligible to carry a gun. Typical freshman dorm room antics, he said, could quickly become dangerous if a firearm is in reach.
“I have grown up around guns but I have always been instilled with a fear of guns because of what they can do,” Stenseng said.
Haddix, the college Republicans chair, attributed these concerns to a stigma around guns. Expanded concealed carry, she said, won’t expand the likelihood of gun violence. People who want to do something illegal or violent with a gun, she said, won’t care if it’s legal for them to have the gun or not.
“I think there’s this stereotype around guns that they are dangerous,” Haddix said. “I’m a daughter of a military veteran who taught all of his kids the importance of gun safety and being able to protect themselves.”
“I think these are great conversations of how can you get over the stigma of guns being considered dangerous and more so how can they be a safety precaution.”
Legislative Debate
Both bills were presented to a House committee Wednesday.
The reciprocity bill, said Attorney General Derek Schmidt, would make it easier for Kansas to encourage other states to recognize Kansas licenses.
Providing provisional licenses to 18- through 20-year-olds was then a matter of fairness.
“Why would we allow people who are not Kansas residents more privileges and rights than people that are?” Rep. Blake Carpenter, a Derby Republican, said.
While opponents pointed to research showing that the brains of minors are still developing, Carpenter insisted that “nothing magical happens when you turn 21.” Nearly every privilege afforded to adults, aside from consumption of alcohol, is awarded at 18, he said.
Those 18-to-20-year-olds, Carpenter said, will need to jump through “a lot of hoops” to get their licenses and must be law abiding citizens. The result, he said, will be relatively few people getting provisional licenses and an assurance that the ones who do are responsible gun owners.
“What it comes down to is individual responsibility,” he said. “I think they will know right from wrong.”
In current Kansas law, Jason Watkins, a lobbyist for the Kansas Rifle Association testified, people as young as 18 are allowed to open carry.
“The second they put on a coat or a jacket they’re breaking the law,” Watkins said.
Rep. Jo Ella Hoye, a Lenexa Democrat and former Moms Demand Action activist, said it wasn’t that simple. The bill, she said, would open the door for teenagers to carry guns in public spaces, like schools, that ban open carry.
“We know we’re experiencing a difficult time as a nation and we’re seeing an increase in suicide,” Hoye said. “It is not a good time to extend hidden loaded guns to 18, 19 and 20-year-olds.”
“They’re the ones who have missed their proms, their graduations, going off to college.”
This story was originally published January 30, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Risk or protection? Kansas Legislature reopens debate about guns on college campuses."
