Ohio Governor John Kasich started the week by signing a bill legalizing campus carry throughout the Buckeye State. Yes but — the bill did not require universities and colleges to stop infringing on Americans’ Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. To ban or not to ban, that is the question now facing Ohio institutions of higher learning.

The schools’ administrators must decide whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous liberal academics or to let law-abiding Americans take arms against a sea of troubles. And by opposing, hopefully, end them.

Sorry. Just killing time. ‘Cause we all know which way this is going to go. Like the vast majority of American institutions of higher learning, Ohio’s universities and colleges are run by left-leaning academics and administrators. They’d no more approve of campus carry than invite Donald Trump to deliver their commencement address.

And so . . .

Bowling Green State University, Kent State University, University of Toledo, University of Akron, and Ohio State University have all announced they’re going to maintain the status quo. They will continue to be “gun free zones.” Or, as we like to call them, “target rich environments” (TREs).

Toledo: “A safe environment for students, employees, faculty, patients, and visitors to campus remains the university’s top priority. Deadly weapons in university buildings and venues will continue to be strictly prohibited.”

Kent State: “The university policy on deadly weapons as approved in September represents the board’s position on this issue and we have no plans for further action.”

Ohio State: “The policy enacted by the Board of Trustees is that concealed firearms are prohibited on Ohio State’s campus, and that remains the policy.”

Let’s hope none of these educators live to regret their decision. Wait. That doesn’t sound right. I mean, let’s hope that no one will suffer because of the administration’s’ decision to trample on Americans’ gun rights. Of course, we know that’s not true.

 

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33 COMMENTS

  1. In packing to leave town I seem to have misplaced my shocked face. You’ll have to settle for nonplussed.

    • They do know and choose to do nothing. If a mass murder occurs, perhaps we should erect posters of the the dead saying…told you so.

  3. 0% surprised. I don’t know how much government funding these institutions are getting, really. If they’re not government owned then they’re private property so I don’t think anyone has much business mandating that they allow guns on campus.

    Though in their defense, Ohio State has armed police on campus, so they’re not totally defenseless. I mean, that is what quickly stopped the last attempted terrorist attack.

    • Basically any university with “State” in the name is run by the state.

      OSU cops can EXPLETIVE DELETED My personal experience with them was obscene at best. Apparently you can be drunk and do whatever you want as long as you wear an OSU shirt when the Buckeyes have a home game against Wolverines.

    • That officer was at the right place at the right time, thank goodness. How often can we say that regarding terrorist attacks though?

      • The OSU terrorist triggered a fire alarm before initiating his attack, apparently not knowing it would summon the nearest LEO in addition to fire fighters.

        • Yeah. That guy was pretty dumb. If you want the best possible body count, what you want to do obviously is alert all the emergency services before you commit the act. But still, OSU has some degree of protection, even if the students are denied the ability to defend themselves, it’s not really a gun free killing zone. If they actually didn’t have police already on campus, that could have turned out worse.

    • That’s the situation in Michigan (except at UofM/MSU/WSU), probably the same in Ohio.
      Just don’t expect to get admitted to any other public school (probably not any school except maybe Liberty University) after being expelled for weapons violations.

    • AND loosing many tens of thousands in tuition, fees, room and board, and credit for any classes taken and good luck getting in any other equivalent level college. Ever.

  6. Well, I’m off to deal with the security theater at the airport and then terrorize my in-laws for the weekend.

    Merry Christmas everyone! Stay safe out there.

    Also, I see the flame/expletive deleted is back for fairly mild stuff. That’s a shame.

  7. I lived off campus at BGSU and was robbed. The only thing taken was a my Browning 20 g and my roommates Browning Highpower. My roommate’s loose lips tipped someone off we had guns in our apt. and one weekend while we were away they broke in and took only those two items.

    City police did nothing, the detective was a particularly lazy f%&k and wanted to say it was insurance fraud. I worked part time for a PI at the time so I and a friend did the leg work and tracked it down to a friend of my roommates girlfriends brother. I had the pleasure of tuning this guy up in the alley right next to the police station. Guns were long gone, but I had some satisfaction.

  8. What a novel idea. Pass a law and state in the language that nobody has to obey it. Somebody was trying to appear like they had done something without really doing it.

  9. Ohio State: “The policy enacted by the Board of Trustees is that concealed firearms are prohibited on Ohio State’s campus, and that remains the policy.”

    Yes, because a situation where a crazy jihadist tries to kill unarmed students with a car and knife would be completely unthinkable. Why would students need to protect themselves?

    • Only if you’re not affiliated with the university. University policy forbids car storage; the cool thing is that SB 199 at least overrides that. It’s not perfect, and the fact it passed at all over a year since the house passed it was political luck. It’s at least a step forward. Baby steps, but forward nonetheless.

  12. The problem with Ohio is that it is a “home rule” state and that any municipality or government body can make its own rules…
    A statute would have to be enacted at the state level in order to make concealed carry on college campuses possible….

    • That’s not even close to true. Ohio has statewide 2a preemption with teeth in that one can recover costs if suing under it.

  14. Sounds ok, everyone knows that even if the terrorists attack, the students can run to their safe spaces and then no one can hurt them then. Sarc/

  15. “… universities and colleges are run by left-leaning academics and administrators.”

    Um, “left-leaning” is waayyyyyy too charitable. I would go with “Communist”.

  16. “… safe environment … Deadly weapons … will continue to be strictly prohibited.”

    What is the basis for equating “deadly weapons” with “unsafe”?

    Every year, violent criminals kill more people with their hands and feet than with long guns. Thus, hands and feet are a statistically greater threat than long guns. Why do facilities ban long guns but then allow hands and feet?

    Furthermore, chainsaws are extremely deadly weapons. And yet no one considers hardware stores, lawn care stores, or home improvement stores that sell and service chainsaws to be unsafe environments.

    Finally, cars and trucks kill tens of thousands of people every year. No one ever claims that car dealers or car service centers are unsafe environments.

    Why do we let institutions get away with suggesting that lawfully armed people somehow create an unsafe environment? The evidence to the contrary is absolutely clear.

  17. Target Rich Environment paints a worse picture of us than we should. I prefer “Victim Disarmament Zones”… rather than “sicko’s seeing other human beings as shooting targets”, we’re “concerned citizens seeing potential victims being prevents from defending themselves and others”.

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