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number two. The other three were not a big deal, with the possible exception of number four, where a complaint about an exposed firearm would get you in hot water with the administration real quick.
What I had in mind regarding de-escalation and negotiation training was something a good deal more extensive than what I got at my CCW class. Now, that was a long time ago in the south (hey, we just discovered asphalt not too long ago), so it might be all different now. But what I had in mind was a full, three credit hour, semester long course. Here's why.
It was interesting that gorfle reminded me of people who are older and considered non traditional students attending classes at night. I hadn't thought of that. My concern at the time was that there needed to be some way to separate the firearm from the general school population and still give the owner control of it. That meant securing it in housing with furniture provided by the owner of the firearm (not the stuff that comes with your standard dorm room) so they could screw the gun safe to something heavy, and that means that the CCW holder would be effectively kicked off campus, with the associated increased costs. A small population, but I had to think about them.
My experience at graduate school was probably different than that of most gun owning adults. One of my peers was ex military and could have carried an M-60 to class with no problem. But there were others who, while technically qualified to own and carry a firearm, I wouldn't have trusted with a fucking slingshot. They simply would not have been able to conduct themselves responsibly in contact their younger peers. Most dated undergrads and socialized with them (read: got a lot of drinking and fucking done). I have no reason to believe that they would have been able to adequately control the weapon under those circumstances. Also, in the academic atmosphere where I was, differences of opinion could become very intense and the knowledge that one of these idiots had a gun would have ruined for everyone. Even if one of them never offered to deploy the firearm, the knowledge that he had it on his person would have made him completely insufferable and would have put many of the others permanently on the defensive. Twenty one years old and a trained warrior or police officer is one thing, twenty one years old and a pampered goof off just out of his undergraduate diapers is another.
People grow up a lot between 18 and 25, some don't grow up at all. College is the place where a lot of growing up happens at different rates for different people, and the difference between child and adult can almost be measured in the space of a few months. It seems to me that a place like that deserves to have a higher bar set on the presence of firearms, even though those responsible owners of guns have to carry a higher burden for it in the form of increased tuition costs and time spent.
Some of that could be mitigated for, say, police officers and ex military who have probably had the kind of training I mentioned above. Others might be able to CLEP it or have career experience and CEU's count toward the requirement. I can't imagine a therapist for example having to take the course.
People grow up a lot in college, and if someone wants to have the added power associated with a firearm while still in a place where growing up happens, they need to double down on the training it takes to be a grownup.
But if that doesn't work I'll have to go back to the drawing board.
Apologies in advance if I don't reply quickly, I'm beat and I gotta go to bed.
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