The Second Amendment At Brown

Nobody would be surprised to learn that Brown University disallows its students to keep and bear arms. At any college today, and especially at progressive Ivy League institutions, it is assumed that firearms are vestiges of a time far different than our own, dangerous, and unnecessary—ultimately, they are abhorrent instruments of destruction and nothing more. Though these feelings are certainly strong, the thought of weapons on school campuses provokes an even stronger reaction. Perhaps the recent string of school shootings has intensified our resolve, though ironically these tragedies might have been stopped by a quick reacting armed-citizen. Indeed, some high schools have gone so far as to reconsider their policies barring teachers from carrying concealed weapons. But these sad and terrible incidents aside, I was surprised that even within this conservative and classically liberal publication I was the only voice advocating the right of students to bear arms.

This shocked me not because I know gads of gun-loving students at Brown, but rather because virtually every Brunonian is a liberty fanatic. We want the government off of our backs and out of our business; we want total sovereignty over how we live our lives. We want to consume whatever drugs we choose, post risqué advertisements around campus, and have sex with whomever we please in the middle of Sayles. Absolute freedom of speech is a given. These are but a sampling of some of the sacraments in the Church of Brown; it is unfortunate that passion for choice in self defense is noticeably absent. The right to protect oneself is the ultimate liberty from which all the others flow, making it of supreme importance and criminal to overlook.

Since we are so apathetic concerning our 2nd amendment rights, Brown’s rule concerning firearms has probably never been questioned. As part of the Standards of Student Conduct, offense VIII is “possession, use, or distribution of firearms, ammunition, explosives, or other weapons.” Amazingly, the policy introduction also states that “in their off-campus lives students are also expected to conform to the standards of community behavior as expressed in the Principles of the Brown University Community and in these Standards of Student Conduct.

I can’t even fathom what this is supposed to mean. Am I obligated to turn down my next invitation to the target range back home? Surely this is ridiculous! You are indignant when the Patriot Act records the books you check out from the library. How then can you be indifferent when Brown compels me, while on private property and on academic break, to forgo the rights afforded to me by the Constitution? If my interpretation seems ridiculous, then I challenge you to search the Standards of Student Conduct for evidence to the contrary.

Of course, I accept an individual’s freedom to restrict guests from carrying weapons on their land. But while Brown is technically private property, it is truthfully a public campus. Visitors are omnipresent and happily received. However Brown does not post warnings that armed guests are unwelcome. And even if those on college tours are mostly harmless, one only need to read the crime alerts to see that our campus isn’t as safe as we would like. The administration can’t or won’t ensure that all campus guests are unarmed, yet it pressures the students alone to remain weaponless. As “citizens” of Brown we deserve the most rights, privileges, and protections, but we are sadly singled out for the restrictions. Are we victims of discrimination, the dirtiest of words in our Ivy League vocabulary?

Even at Brown few would deny a right to self-defense. I don’t know a single person who has a problem with a female student who chooses to carry mace, though it would seem this is an illegal implement on the Brown campus. But if a student so desired to carry a gun then they would be branded as ridiculous, radical, and dangerous. Why? While I don’t currently have need to carry a firearm, I am sure some of our peers would have been safer with one at some point. I don’t think it is Brown’s place to deny them this choice. As Brown students, we are supposedly responsible and mature adults, and we certainly expect any student trying to comply with the Standards of Student Conduct to possess these qualities. While it is unfortunate that the administration cannot control the actions of everybody on our campus, I ask them to reconsider their obligations for those respectful, careful, and responsible students amongst us. Which is more important, the freedom to post pornographic advertisements or liberty and life itself?