Florida Shooting Debunks Gun Hysteria at GWU

WASHINGTON - Aug. 28, 2023 - PRLog -- The fact that a crazed and well armed gunman, intent on killing Black people, was forced to leave the target-rich environment of a historically Black University by an armed police officer debunks the hysteria which greeted GWU's plan to arm a small number of its campus police.

When GWU frst announced that it would arm a small number of its police officers who were already licensed to carry firearms, the response by small groups of students and a few faculty bordered on hysteria, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf of GWU's law school.

For example, the students insisted that giving even a small number of police permission to carry a handgun would put at risk of being brutalized virtually everyone in the greater D.C. area except for rich white people living in the suburbs.

Meanwhile, a few faculty members claimed that there was no evidence having armed personnel would reduce the risk of anyone being shot if a crazed gunman came to the GWU campus, as so many have to other colleges and universities.

Sunday's events are dramatic proof of just how wrong they are, says Banzhaf.  The presence of just one police officer stopped a murderous gunman out hunting for Blacks to leave one full of African Americans, and go instead to a store with a racial mix of customers where he had to pick and choose his targets.

The decision by this university - like most other universities - not to leave their campus police helpless against intruders likely to be armed, probably saved the lives of many of their students, argues Banzhaf.

At GWU, some 200 of its faculty claimed that having some GWU police armed is "more likely to reduce safety rather than enhance it."

But this assertion by faculty members is contradicted by the overwhelming majority of GWU's peer universities - as well as a clear majority of all universities - to arm their police, notes  Banzhaf, a former security office and security consultant who recently published a detailed study (https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=202210...)  of mass shootings on campus.

But the extent to which faculty opinion on this controversial issue is well informed is suggested by a recent survey which showed that virtually nobody on the faculty even knows how to lock classroom doors in the event of an active-shooter-on-campus alert, says Banzhaf

Moreover, as the professor points out, deranged-shooter-on-campus situations elsewhere have had to be resolved by the use of deadly force – either to neutralize the shooter or to pressure him to shoot himself – and not by deep empathy, dignity illumination and enhancement, intervention skills, nonviolent communication, or restorative justice and  weaponless civilian protection units.

jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com   @profbanzhaf