Campus Carry at UGA -- NEW Stuff

UGA President Jere Morehead sent an email out earlier today with some details on how the university will handle "campus carry." You can read the text of the email here. Below I discuss a few of the more interesting aspects to this.

Here's an interesting one on exclusions from where you can carry a weapon. I've boldfaced a key part.

Rooms and other spaces during the times when they are being used for classes in which high school students are enrolled, whether through dual enrollment and programs such as Move On When Ready or through college and career academies or other specialized programs such as Early College. License-holders who want to carry handguns to class will need to visit the institution’s registrar or other designated employee, who after verifying their enrollment status will tell them which of their classes, if any, have high school students enrolled. Institutions shall not, however, keep any listing of those who inquire.  (Note also that the names of enrolled high school students may not be revealed in accordance with applicable privacy laws.) It is the responsibility of license-holders to seek out this information and make themselves aware of which classrooms fall within this exception.

So if you're a student and packing, you're obligated to make sure your particular class at that particular time in that particular room is available for carrying a weapon. Lemme explain. We have a lot of high school students taking class on campus, and by a lot I mean only about 30 or so a semester, but they're sprinkled across campus and it's possible that big intro class you're taking as a UGA student also have a high school student -- though we as faculty do not know who they are. In other words, campus carriers, check with this list. 

Here's another exception for you sports fans:

Buildings and property used for athletic sporting events. This exception includes stadiums, gymnasiums and similar facilities in which intercollegiate games are staged (but does not extend to so-called “tailgating” areas where fans may congregate outside the gates of the sports facility). It does not extend to student recreation centers and similar facilities that are not used for intercollegiate games.

So this answer a question that had been bouncing around, would UGA allow concealed carry at football Saturday tailgates. Apparently so. The Ramsey Center, I'd think, is not a place you can carry even though it's a student rec center, mainly because it's used for swimming, diving, volleyball, and maybe some other sports.

See the link above to the full text for more info.

NEW

Just hit me that the ability of a student with a conceal permit asking if a classroom is open to carrying does not list faculty. If I have a concealed weapon permit, can I also ask and learn if there's a high school student in that (my) classroom and I can't carry either? It'll be interesting to see if UGA alters its employee rules to allow us to carry. Last I looked, we could not bring any weapon to campus.

Outgunned on Campus

This just occurred to me: I'm gonna be outgunned on the UGA campus.

Georgia's new "campus carry" law makes an exception for faculty offices. That's good. I don't want to tell a student why he/she/it didn't get the grade he/she/it wanted while he/she/it is packing a sidearm. By Georgia law, in my office at least, we're both unarmed and, well ....



Here's the rub ... and why I'm outgunned: I don't drive to campus. I ride with my wife every morning, who works elsewhere on campus, on the far side, and I often take a bus home. So by law, if I get a permit for my .357, I can't bring it to work, or at least to my office. So other than hiding it in a bush outside my building, I'd go to class unarmed while my students can arrive armed.

So I'm already outgunned. I'll be bringing a briefcase to a gun fight.

The answer? Spring for a parking permit, I suppose, though I haven't had one for five or so years, mainly as both of my kids, as students, had parking permits, and I saw no reason to pay for a fourth parking place. Now that both of my kids have graduated I may have to reconsider.

UPDATE

Just hit me. The college needs a gun locker. That's the solution. When I see the dean, I'm sure he'll be open to spending money on that.

Describe Donald Trump

There's a new Quinnipiac poll out with the usual bad news about President Trump, at least in terms of favorability numbers, but let's look at a different question. Scroll down the page to Question 9. It asks:

What is the first word that comes to mind when you think of Donald Trump? (Numbers are not percentages. Figures show the number of times each response was given. This table reports only words that were mentioned at least five times.)

I've limited this to the Top Ten. See my chart below. Idiot gets the most responses, followed by incompetent and liar. Ouch. It's not until #4 do we see a positive, leader. Then comes a list of either negative terms (like ignorant) or factual ones (like president).

This survey was a mix of landline and cell phones of 1,078 voters nationwide. That means out of over a thousand responses, only 39 called the president an idiot. Looking at the list of descriptors that received at least five mentions, most are negative. By my count, 28 of the 46 words are negative (61 percent), while only 12 of them are positive (26 percent). The rest I coded as either neutral or factual, such as president or rich (the latter could have negative connotations, depending on the respondent, but I put it as factual).

I'd love to see the entire list. No doubt there are some colorful responses in there, though asshole got 13 responses.

Campus Carry in Georgia

Georgia's governor has not (at this writing) signed or vetoed the so-called "campus carry" law. He may allow it to become law without his signature, which could happen sometime next week, I believe. Regardless, odds are it's going to become law and go into effect later this summer.

Which raises an important question -- do I get a gun?

By this I mean a campus gun. I own a handgun but it's a .357 magnum and heavy for everyday campus wear, so let's hold it in reserve. In fact, to not be tacky, I need a gun for every day of the week. A Monday gun is different than, say, a Friday gun. A Monday gun is all business. Serious. Angry, even. A Wednesday gun is hopeful but tired. A Friday gun is happy.

What's a happy gun? Small caliber, like a .22. A little funky. What's a Monday gun? Maybe my trusty .357, but I'm thinking that's still too big to lug across campus. A Glock 9 mm sounds good. By Wednesday I need a weapon that reflects hump day. Suggestions welcome, but a snubnose .38 sounds good to me. As to Tuesdays and Thursdays, I'm thinking the same gun for those days, but I have no idea yet what it should be. And I'm talking handguns here.

Seriously, how many students will be packing once this becomes law? I'm guessing on my campus, maybe a hundred, no more than a couple hundred. I can see this become a "thing" among the frat guys, but the cost and paperwork may dissuade most folks from bothering. I certainly hope so.