Liberty University – Training Gunslingers for Christ

As a Liberty University alumni, I wanted to avoid writing about this. I really did. But damn.

President Jerry Falwell Jr. made the recent announcement that students could carry concealed guns on campus, which will now include the option to have them in the dorms. It’s pending Liberty board review, but as president it’s highly unlikely that Falwell would have made the announcement without having already obtained majority consent.

If more good people had concealed-carry permits, then we could end those’ Islamist terrorists. (Jerry Falwell Jr.)

Liberty University has allowed students with concealed-carry permits to have guns on campus since 2011, something that Falwell indicates was in response to the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech, located roughly 90 miles away. However, campus residents have been required to store them in their cars. Falwell indicated that this policy was going to change so that students could now store them in their dorm rooms.

Madness.

As that great verse in Psalms says, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; my 9mm and AR-15, they comfort me.”

Falwell is assuming far too many idiocies with this decision. Here are a few.

• He assumes that all students are God-fearing, law-abiding, honest, teetotalers who would always demonstrate perfect restraint and clear decision making ability in any and all situations.
• He assumes that only the permit holders will be the only individuals to handle their guns in the dormitory. In other words, he imagines that young testosterone-filled men (who play Halo 5 at every opportunity), would NEVER let a roommate hold or handle their gun.
• He assumes that all students on campus are good Christians. Ever heard of Jesse Matthew Jr?
• He assumes that should the situation arise where an armed hostile was firing on others, that a gun-slinging student would have the clarity of thought and stealy-decision making ability to act in a manner that ends or shortens the situation. And that he/she doesn’t make it worse.
• He assumes that when police arrive, they will know who the original assailant was and that anyone else who happens to be holding a gun is a sane God-fearing student with a gun permit.
• He assumes that students who can’t be trusted to have toasters in their dorm rooms (due to safety concerns), can be trusted to store loaded guns. Thankfully, we know that toast doesn’t kill people. Only students who improperly use toasters do.
• Per student code, students are not allowed to stay off campus overnight in the apartments or houses of single off-campus individuals. The university thus assumes that these students, who can’t be trusted with their own genitalia, can safely walk around armed for a gunfight.

Someone else in a comment thread put it well: A bunch of sexually repressed young men, packed together in a dorm with a bunch of guns. What could possibly go wrong?