Wichita State forum brings out both sides of gun debate

Concerns ranging from mass shootings to stressed-out students were aired Friday as Wichita State University faculty and staff sought to develop a consensus response to the issue of guns on campus.

Some of the employees participating in the open forum said they’d feel safer knowing that people were allowed to carry concealed handguns outside and inside university buildings, while others said it would make bad situations worse.

“The issue at hand is one that will affect us all,” said Peer Moore-Jansen, professor of anthropology and the president of the Faculty Senate, which sponsored the forum.

The issue is at the forefront as WSU and other campuses in the state university system prepare for July 1, 2017, the date the Legislature has established to open all public colleges to concealed carry.

Under a pair of laws passed since 2012, anyone over the age of 21 who can legally own a gun would be allowed to carry it concealed and loaded on a campus with no training or permit required.

Professor Fred Besthorn said the idea of untrained students with concealed guns in the classroom “frightens the hell out of me.”

He said his department, social work, often has to address controversial social and personal issues.

And some students come in with their own emotional problems that rise to the surface when classroom talk turns controversial. “If they’re carrying guns, it frightens me even more,” he said.

Besthorn, a gun owner and former law enforcement officer, said, “I’ve never seen a time when guns involved with people ever turned out good.”

Others said they think guns on campus will send a message – particularly to international students – that WSU is an unsafe environment for education.

Julie Christensson, associate director of international student services, and Rebecca Curren, an international student advisor, worried about the effect guns would have on campus life for their students, especially Muslim students who already feel threatened over religious differences.

Christensson said the belief that more guns means more safety is a uniquely American trait and makes international students feel less safe, particularly because they’re barred by federal law from possessing weapons.

She said it’s ridiculous that all university buildings will be open to guns when “I’m not even allowed to have a space heater in my office when it’s 63 degrees.”

Curren said that with guns allowed in the dorms, the university may as well drop its requirement that freshmen from outside Sedgwick County live on campus their first year.

Curren sits on the board that considers appeals of the rule and said unregulated guns in the dorms would give every student a legitimate argument for why they should be allowed to live off-campus.

Chemistry professor Katie Mitchell called on the group to sue the state for failing to maintain a safe workplace.

“Guns belong in war zones, not civil society,” she said. “Don’t I have rights? What are my rights in the workplace? If anybody knows the law, I’m interested in taking legal action because I feel I have rights too.”

Several other speakers defended the new law, saying it could deter violence because a potential shooter wouldn’t know who might be equipped to shoot back.

Gabrielle Dodosh, an administrative assistant at the National Institute for Aviation Research, said she doesn’t see much need for guns in the classrooms. “But at night on campus? You betcha.”

Shonn Haren, a librarian and assistant professor, said gun-free zones can’t prevent the kinds of mass shootings that have taken place on campuses across America.

“Let’s be honest, guys, there are guns on this campus already. OK?” he said. “There are people who are unhinged on this campus already. At the moment, the only thing we have protecting us, if we can call it that, is the fact that we refer to this as a gun-free zone.”

He said people should stop referring to mass shootings as “unthinkable.”

“It’s not unthinkable, it happens on a regular basis,” he said. “If we cannot prevent tragedy, we have to prepare for it.”

He proposed mandatory active-shooter training for all employees and trauma-emergency medical training for at least one employee in every building.

Jeffrey Franck, a technician in the Media Resource Center, said he has a concealed-carry permit and if he were to choose to carry on campus, the people around him would never even know it.

“I’m not a prepper, I’m not somebody who’s going to react. I’m also a Marine veteran. This is real life, man. Prepare for the worst.”

Randy Sessions, an employee in information technology, made the statistical case.

He said most gun deaths occur at home and there are more mass shootings in restaurants than in schools, “but there’s no call for waiters and waitresses to carry guns.”

He said people at the universities need to recognize the fact that guns are coming to their campuses in a year and a half and there’s nothing they can do about it.

“We’re not a big enough group in this state to force that change,” he said. “You’re definitely not going to get enough Kansas voters to force that change.

“We need to come up with a way to implement that change, not try to change the change.”

This story was originally published December 4, 2015 at 3:25 PM with the headline "Wichita State forum brings out both sides of gun debate."