Alaska News

Alaska lawmakers should go back to work on bill to allow carry of firearms on university campuses

You know what I like talking about? Plants.

I love them -- they smell nice, grow, flower, sprout fruit, do all kinds of cute stuff. Plants are sort of my "thing." That's why I'm going to UAA under the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill. One day, I'm sure I'll write something about my plans to start a Veteran-operated nonprofit to consult, advise and facilitate the use of agricultural techniques based upon ecological principles, such as aquaponics, to provide local, healthy and affordable food in a sustainable manner to places like our isolated village communities.

Not today. Sorry. Consider this a rain check. Instead, we're going to discuss a few things that I saw on 360 North the other night while unwinding from microbiology homework. More specifically, the two state Senate bills addressing firearms.

I'm a fan of the Springfield Model 1903. We were born two miles apart, and she will forever remain America's finest bolt-action battle rifle. But I have to agree with SB 175, which aims to designate Alaska's official state firearm. The pre-1964 Winchester model 70, is a controlled-feed bolt action rifle with impeccable reliability, and surely deserves the honor of becoming Alaska's official bolt action rifle. Besides, the M1903 and her younger sister variants have nothing to prove, so the dude abides.

On Senate Bill 176, I have a more elaborate opinion.

About two weeks ago, I was enjoying the evening in my office in the Student Union, writing calculus formulae all over the windows in whiteboard marker and jamming out to some Hungarian thrash metal. At about 9 p.m., one of my gorgeous and brilliant lady friends stormed in seeking asylum after a rather large fellow in a trench coat approached her while she was at her locker -- only about 10 meters (no, not 30 feet -- I'm a scientist) from my office. I don't remember what she told me verbatim, but I remember the general message was "I think Father Creep-ass is trying to bring me back to his secret tickle fort."

My lady friend is around 153 centimeters, and 50 kilograms (5 feet, 110 pounds for non-scientists) -- clearly not a heavyweight prizefighter. Since this is America, and people generally frown upon me using the skills accumulated during my time as one of this country's nasty slobbering attack dogs, I went with a more subtle option. She spent the next 20 minutes or so visiting with me. I gave her my little pocket knife and taught her the finer points of "going for the eyes." After which she went off to the gym to, as the kids these days say, "get her swoll on," while I swept the building to make sure this dude wasn't waiting to ambush her.

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Nothing happened, and she made it home just fine. But giving a hippy girl a 2-inch pocket knife and telling her to jack some dude in the face if he tried anything is not an acceptable way to conduct business. But that's what happens when you are on a campus in a state with the highest rate of violence against women -- IN THE NATION -- a campus featuring characters nicknamed the "Phantom Kisser" and "Dancing Prizefighter," and which has a strict no-weapons policy and where police are minutes away when seconds count. This status quo is just a little bit stupid.

I have no concern for my own safety. I'm 190 centimeters of grizzled old soldier with two thumbs and enough adrenaline to power through walking off of a dropzone with a shattered fibula and a 50-pound kit. Taking into account Alaska's awesome demographics, there are quite a few other veterans on campus with similar tenacity. But neither they nor the UAA Police Department can be there instantaneously to protect your daughter, your son, or you when some freak comes out of the woodwork with a nefarious plan.

My non-warfighter classmates on campus need a force-multiplier in order to meet these idiots on even footing. Notice that I haven't said "firearm" or any synonym of firearm. Make no mistake, there is only one weapon -- the brain. Everything else is just a tool by which that Universal Weapon might produce the desired effects.

Now let's look at the flipside of this pretty little coin.

My chemistry professor and dozens of other parents take their kids to the preschool not three doors down from my office in the Student Union. I haven't asked him, but I'm pretty sure "Bones" would appreciate it if there were as few firearms in proximity to his toddler as humanly possible. I really don't care what his reason is, because he is the parent, and I'm not a jerk who would consider crossing such a line out of some sense of self-entitlement just because the Constitution, a document to which I have sworn unceasing allegiance, said I could.

Part of practicing the principles of liberty is understanding when your expression of your rights infringe upon those of others, and one of those instances is carrying a gun around a preschool full of other people's kids.

Don't think I'm some kind of anti-gun hippy because of this stance; I carry concealed where it is lawful to do so, and I spend as much free time as I can shooting, hunting and educating my friends on firearms safety. But because of my experiences, I know that there are several side effects to having loaded firearms around.

In Alaska, there is no required training regimen for concealed carry, nor is there a proficiency or safety test. If this same rule of law were to be applied on campus, an incompetent fool could simply slap a Ruger SP101 .357 Magnum in his or her back holster and roll into a lecture hall filled with hundreds of gun-shy people without a second thought as to how to safely deploy such an instrument in their defense.

Idiots aside, even good, well-trained people make mistakes. Unfortunately there is no "UNKILL" button on a firearm in the event of a negligent discharge. Trust me, I've checked.

A firearm is an individual force-multiplier unmatched by any other man-portable tool ever devised. Through our history, they have made their mark -- my ancestor Thomas at Vicksburg with his Springfield 1860, my great-grandfather with his '03 at The Marne, and my M-4 through two campaigns in RC-East. But you know why those firearms were so effective? Because of the training and sharpening of that Universal Weapon, the human brain, to use that tool to the maximum effect against the enemies of liberty while at the same time preventing harm to any friendly people or property.

America has bred the finest riflemen on the planet for longer than it has existed as a political entity. But recently, our cultural turn toward finding entertainment in ultra-realistic-non-realities, and the emergence of "preppers" along with the pop-culture version, "zombie hunters" (or whatever hip thing they call themselves this week), have revealed a gap in education.

Those particular cliques remind me of a bunch of 10-year-old kids playing with their father's wrenches in the toolshed -- they like the "badass" image, they feel strong and manly playing with the tools, but they have no idea what they're doing or how to do it safely.

A few months after I got home from active duty, I was sitting in a café at UAA, talking rifles with a few of my classmates. One of them showed me a picture of his AR-15, then with a blank expression told me that he had built it to look just like his rifle on Call of Duty. I see enough of those people on the range -- guys who buy the "cutting edge" carbine and trick it out because it looks cool, but is in fact completely useless in a tactical application. Coincidentally, they're also the same types who get kicked off the range for shooting when people are checking their targets.

That is the sort of people who would be allowed to carry concealed firearms on the UAA campus.

Keep that in mind.

Now, for the whole "Active Shooter" situation, the odds are insignificant that anyone would be insane enough to try such a maneuver. Not only can UPD handle this threat, but you also have a bunch of sleepy-eyed guys who sit in the back by the door to every classroom who have socks with more close combat experience than most modern armies and a tendency to be extremely effective even if they're wounded or outgunned.

The UPD officers are good people. Some of them are veterans, and they're pretty sharp at what they do. But lawmakers should give them a hand in such a nightmare scenario by keeping the number of people in civilian clothes with firearms down. I would not fault the police if they came into such a situation and put a pair of bullets into the chest of every single person holding a firearm.

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Some may balk at such a remark. Please, by all means remain in that "perfect world" bubble. Meanwhile, in close quarters, people running into a gunfight often do not have time for such luxury as playing the "Friend or Foe" game -- they act decisively to save the maximum number of people.

To paraphrase my former platoon leader on a 2010 incident in which innocent civilians were improperly identified as combatants and engaged by a neighboring unit: "That's what happens when you shoot bullets. People die. Sometimes they're not the right people."

I'm not going to indulge in any more speculation about a hypothetical active shooter on campus because every one of you already have an opinion formed on the matter, and I'm sure I won't stir one of you from it. We need to enable people to protect themselves who may not be able to physically dominate an aggressor. This can be accomplished without firearms, and it can be accomplished with firearms -- but the current tack of the Alaska State Legislature is, I believe, untenable.

Lawmakers should consider two modifications to SB 176:

• If concealed carry is authorized -- require concealed carry courses and firearm safety courses, along with a Concealed Carry Permit specifically for university grounds. No exceptions, even for military members or people with prior service like me. There is always a chance of learning something new in safety that may save someone's life in crisis, and I would rather that opportunity never be wasted.

• Loosen the definition of what would qualify as an unauthorized concealed weapon, enabling the carry of less-lethal alternatives.

I'm not at UAA to stuff tampons into gunshot wounds, I'm here to learn. Do students and faculty a favor and think about the second- and third-order effects I have mentioned.

And have a terrific day, unless you've made other plans.

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Bryan Box is a veteran of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. When not studying as a biological sciences major at the University of Alaska Anchorage, or conducting duties as the vice president of Student Veterans of UAA, he spends his time writing and experimenting with advanced agricultural techniques.

The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, e-mail commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.

Bryan Box

Bryan Box is a veteran of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. When not studying as a Biological Sciences major at the University of Alaska Anchorage, or fulfilling his duties as vice president of Student Veterans of UAA, he spends his time writing and experimenting with advanced agricultural techniques.

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