What exactly is the point of a police force?
A few enterprising students on Georgetown University’s campus have petitioned their school’s president to arm its police force. It is something of a wonder that the university’s police are not already armed, though one supposes it is unsurprising given the general hostility many campuses display toward firearms. In any event, these young activists are right: Georgetown, and indeed every university with a police force, should arm its officers.
This sensible protocol is not meant to suggest that any one university is likely to be shot up by a madman; it is highly unlikely that a particular university will be the victim of a mass shooter, and it is similarly unlikely that a school will experience any type of gun violence at all. Just the same, if and when such a tragedy occurs, the presence of an armed police force on campus could mean the difference between a terrible shooting and a brutal massacre. Indeed, there is some evidence that armed security on campus might deter shooters altogether: As one Georgetown student told The Fix, there is evidence that the perpetrator of the Charleston church massacre originally intended to shoot up a nearby college, but switched targets to avoid the armed police force there.
Many students express fear over their campus police forces being armed. And so the obvious question arises: Why even have police in the first place? Georgetown University cops currently only carry pepper spray and nightsticks, which is to say that they are only slightly more armed than the average non-police officer. Police, properly construed, are supposed almost by definition to have equipment and abilities several steps above the average civilian. Municipalities are welcome to disarm their police forces and outfit them with billy clubs and cans of mace. But it makes little sense from the perspective of public safety and crime prevention.
Numerous other colleges already arm their police officers, and contrary to the dire predictions of anti-gun activists, those campuses have not seen an explosion of gun violence and police misconduct. Arming cops makes sense—both off-campus and on it. Georgetown should do the commonsense thing here.
MORE: Georgetown students petition president: Let university police carry firearms
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