When the Arkansas Legislature passed a concealed carry law in April, it exempted schools from having to comply. That left university officials throughout the State in charge of deciding whether conceal carry is legal on campus, and many of them — including Arkansas State and the University of Arkansas — quickly banned it.
A lot of students and faculty are upset. “We just don’t understand how someone trusted to teach in a university and has also gone through the additional rigor to obtain a concealed handgun carry license environment cannot be trusted with their self-defense,” Mike Newbern, assistant director of public relations for Students for Concealed Carry, told Campus Reform.
One UA biology professor stressed the need for effective personal protection near and on campus by relating an anecdote that appeared in the Daily Caller:
I had not gone very far before I was attacked from behind by two of them and received a number of blows to the back of my head. Given the proximity to this campus and the fact that a number of our students, faculty and staff walk through this very same area on both a daily and nightly basis I felt it prudent to share this info with you and to advise you to be on your guard while in the vicinity.
An expert with the university’s Department of Public Safety offered an obvious solution for such scenarios: glance and nod at the thugs. “A glance or a nod will help you show anyone who might think that you are not paying attention, and you are aware of their presence,” wrote detective Sharon Houlette.
Obviously, the only way a glance will be effective is if you summon laser beams to shoot from your eyes. One commenter reading a report at The Arkansas Project urging students not to follow such stupid advice said this:
Are you out of your flippin’ mind? Who makes this stuff up. I have been in law enforcement for 30 years and it astounds me how some people make a living telling others to just be a victim.
If this were my daughter and someone told her to “nod” I’d tell her to file a formal complaint alleging “stupid in a public place.”
But if unarmed UALR students follow Houlette’s advice, at least they can die with dignity. The same can’t be said of students who matriculate in Colorado — who’ve been advised to greet attackers by convulsing, puking, peeing themselves and just generally acting like damn fools
