Police and Guns

Police have guns. There is a reason and it may seem obvious. It only makes sense that police have guns. Well, not so fast. There is a disturbing trend developing and you won’t believe where it is happening.
Princeton University, Columbus State Community College (OH) and San Francisco Community College (CA) are only three of the many institutes of higher learning where the on campus police do not carry guns.
You may remember when you were in college coming across your campus police. They are generally not as threatening to the students as a city police officer or deputy sheriff. I have even been there and seen how shocked people can be when a campus police officer arrests them. By the way, this is too late in life to realize they are actual police officers. Campus police are still police. They have arrest powers and come in contact with the general public traveling through or on campus. Despite what university administrators would like to believe, they are not only contacting students. They do arrest “bad guys”. This means they arrest the same people the city police officer does and are subject to the same threats.
At some of these institutions the campus officers tried to appeal the university’s policy to OSHA as an occupational hazard. It seems very obvious to me it is an occupational hazard to do police work without a gun. OSHA actually disagreed. They decided it wasn’t a safety issue for the police to work without guns.
Now, let me make this clear… my post is not an attempt to debate gun control. I only wish to point out a few ideas and arguments for police to carry guns.
First, there has been an increase in school shootings. Is there any doubt this is taking place across the country? From Columbine (CO) to Virginia Tech (VA) and Northern Illinois University (IL) there is an epidemic of school shootings. Where does this leave the students? Unprotected and at the mercy of a motivated coward taking human life like it is a video game.
Second, there is only one option available to the unarmed campus police officer when a school shooting starts – Run! It would be suicide to do anything else. Who is left to protect the students? No one.
Third, why have campus police if you are going to disarm them? Just have security guards. How safe is a campus without armed police officers?
Fourth, unarmed campus police can just wait for the city police or sheriff to take care of the problem. How long will it take for them to get there? One minute? Two? Three? Three minutes would be very quick of a response time. Consider how many people can be shot or killed in three minutes?

So why do police have guns? There are several reasons and here are a few.
We carry and train with firearms because police officers have a sworn obligation to save lives and sometimes deadly force is the only way to stop a person from committing a terrible act. Our goal is to stop the person causing the threat. We would like to be able to stop them without the possibility of killing them, but we don’t have a Star Trek “phaser” we can set to stun.
The firearm is merely a tool we use to make the bad guy stop. A firearm is nothing more than a tool. Shooting a firearm is primarily a mental exercise. Some basic physical skills are also needed, but mastery requires the proper mindset. Part of that mindset is pre-deciding that you are capable of killing another human being under the proper legal and moral conditions. This sounds very harsh but these legal and moral conditions are in defense of yourself or another. It is important for there to be those in society who are willing to stand in defense of justice and other’s freedoms. The majority of the Judeo-Christian world knows the commandment “Thou shalt not kill”. This was mistranslated in the King James Version. The original language of the Commandment prohibited murder. Murder is an unjustified killing.
No police officer who is true to the sworn oath and obligation they accepted wants to kill. They are motivated however with a drive to save the day and protect the innocent. In order to do this effectively you must be prepared. This preparation includes having all the tools necessary to perform your duties. I would suggest to you having a gun is vital to being prepared and a necessary tool for not just campus police but all the police forces across the nation.