I get why some people don’t believe in campus carry. I understand why it terrifies them. After all, the perception is that only three kinds of people carry guns: police officers, bad guys, and wannabe Rambos. While we all know that perception to be false, it doesn’t mean that it’s not there. As a result, though, I understand why people get concerned.

I don’t agree, mind you, but I get it.

However, one group we should all agree that should be armed is the police. They routinely put themselves in situations during the course of their duties that places them at grave risk for bodily harm. This includes responding to potential mass shootings or more pedestrian violent crimes.

We need the police to have guns.

Yet a group of students at the University of Minnesota staged a sit-in at the president’s office in an effort to disarm the campus police.

Textbooks in hand, members of the student group Students for a Democratic Society held a sit-in outside University of Minnesota President Joan Gabel’s office Friday morning.

The students are calling for the University to disarm the University Police Department and increase the diversity of the student population. The sit-in is part of a broader campaign by the student group this year to demand action by the University.

“This is essentially a reminder that we expect these demands to be met,” said Jackson Bianchi, an organizer for the event.

Instead of a traditional sit-in, students brought homework and call the event a “study-in”.

Well, since they “expect these demands to be met,” then clearly they have numbers on their side.

Only…they don’t.

Around eight students sat in the lobby outside Gabel’s office with signs printed with words like “Disarm UMPD.”

 

Disarming the university police department is beyond stupid.

Major colleges become basically communities in and of themselves. Albany State University in my hometown isn’t a particularly large college, yet it’s total enrollment is over 6,000 people. That’s a town unto itself. Larger colleges have more.

The University of Minnesota has over 50,000 students. When you figure in faculty, you’re looking at a large town that would need its own police force. While it’s relatively safe on a college campus, that doesn’t mean things won’t happen. Armed robbery, aggravated assault, all kinds of bad things can still happen anywhere you gather that many people on a single campus. All kinds of things that may require an armed response.

These eight kids seem to think that a disarmed police force makes them somehow safer. It doesn’t. Do they think Virginia Tech would have had less of a body count if armed police hadn’t been available? If they do, they’re even dumber than I thought.

However, this is what happens when law enforcement as a whole is demonized to such a degree as it has been in this country. While I despise bad cops with a burning passion, I also recognize that they’re a tiny minority of the police officers in this country. The last thing I’d want to do is disarm them.

Of course, I suppose these kids are being consistent, at least.

I’m quite sure they would disarm each and every citizen in this country if they could due to the actions of a tiny handful of people. Kind of like what they want to do to police at the University of Minnesota.

Hat tip: The College Fix