With mass shootings becoming more common nationwide, the general debate

surrounding gun control has spurred a new question: should public safety officers at educational institutions be armed or not?

 

Currently here at RWU, officers affiliated with the Department of Public Safety are not armed.In the larger debate as to whether or not college campus police should be armed or not, many point out that in the event of an emergency, such as that of a hostile intruder, it would be easy for the campus police to respond to the incident relatively quickly if they had weapons.

 

Maybe not, in many mass shootings, these incidents are perpetrated by those who are carrying automatic firearms, or those with the capacity to disperse large amounts of firepower in a short amount of time. It would be likely that RWU’s public safety officers wouldn’t be carrying the type of heavy firearms that are used by perpetrators in many mass shootings. Rather they would be given ineffective handguns. In any case, it’s likely we would not be seeing public

safety officers carrying assault rifles.

 

It is important to note that our law enforcement agencies are rigorously trained to respond to different emergencies and to contain the situation in the shortest period of time possible.

 

According to the mandatory annual Clery Report, RWU did not have any incidents of murder or manslaughter between 2015 and 2017. While reports of rape, sexual assault and other types of crime were reported on campus during the same period, none of these could have been prevented with armed public safety officers.

 

It’s time that we end this debate and leave guns in the hands of our trusted law enforcement agencies.