Emporia State’s faculty senate passed the weapons policy on concealed carry, allowing guns to be carried on campus as long as they are concealed in compliance with Kansas law, last Tuesday. There are a variety of mixed student, faculty and staff reactions about the law itself and the passing of the bill within the faculty senate.

“The reality is the law is the law and we have to comply with that,” said Allison Garrett, ESU’s President. “There are of course a wide range of opinions about the law, but many individuals here at Emporia State, as well as other universities throughout the state, are not pleased that is the law and there are certainly some people who hold out hopes that might be changed. That being said, the law is the law and we certainly, as a university, want to do our best to comply.”

Garrett believes the weapons policy committee did a “marvelous” job of recognizing the need to develop a policy, analyzing where the greatest risk to the university could be and then drafting a policy that addresses those risks “while still being consistent with the law that the legislature has passed”.

The deadline for all universities to submit their policy to the Kansas Board of Regents for the October meeting was yesterday, Sept. 28, according to Garrett.

“The two universities policies that will be considered first by KBOR are Fort Hays State University and Emporia State University,” Garrett said. “We know that, at their October meeting, our policy will be reviewed by the full Board of Regents.”

Having more people on campus carrying guns could possibly have a “chilling effect” on the free exchange of ideas and discussion of difficult topics and is probably why a high percentage of faculty and staff, not only at ESU but other universities, feel the law is a misguided attempt to insure safety on campuses, according to Garrett.

“…There is always somebody who will or may not say something because they are afraid of the reaction they might get, that happens now, people are afraid that if ‘I take a position on a particular topic, they are going to come after me’, whoever they are,” said Kevin Johnson, weapon policy task force member and general counsel. “To me, if a person says ‘I don’t want to say anything because someone might have a gun here,’ then they think that person is a criminal and is going to murder them or attack them.”

If anyone who is carrying a weapon or they are pretending that they are or if they try to make it look like they are carrying a weapon in reaction to something they don’t like to hear could be a potential policy violation or crime, according to Johnson.

The university decided to not use the law’s definition of “adequate security measures”, which is a metal detector and armed security guard with a wand at every entrance,  due to cost expenses according to Johnson.

“The reality would be, I don’t think we could increase tuition enough to afford all of the guards and all the metal detectors necessary to assure we had no guns at all on campus,” Garrett said. “The cost would be millions of dollars to do that.”

“I feel like it might be a problem,” Kathenne MacGregor, freshman communications major, said. “I don’t think I’ll feel safe.”

As of right now, the Associated Student Government has no plans to discuss or do anything concerning the weapons policy, according to Elijah Williams, senior political science and communications major and ASG president.

The weapons policy, along with the Kansas law, will take full effect on July 1, 2017.