GWU Arming Its Police Despite Questionable Objections

WASHINGTON - June 9, 2023 - PRLog -- The George Washington University [GWU] is moving ahead with plans to arm some of its police by issuing revised guidelines for using deadly force, and rejecting suggestions by over 200 faculty members that it instead use techniques such as the "dignity of all people," "deep empathy," "nonviolent communication," and "bystander intervention skills" to deal with crazed shooters on campus.

This follows revelations from a survey which showed that virtually nobody on the faculty knows how to lock classroom doors in the event of an active-shooter-on-campus alert, and that the Faculty Senate has refused to take any position on a variety of safety-related proposals, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf of GWU.

Indeed, he notes that the issue of arming its campus police has been actively discussed on the GWU campus since at least 2008, so belated objections to this move now by GWU - following in the footsteps of virtually all of its peer institutions as well as the overwhelming majority of universities - appears to be too little and too late.

Some student organizations also objected to these plans, arguing that arming some GWU police would endanger everyone except for rich White suburbanites.

Although some have tried to argue that having armed police would not deter crazed shooters from murdering students on campus. nor help to quickly stop any shooter who does appear, this argument is contrary to the conclusions not only of most other universities, but also to the decisions by banks, many governmental bodies, large corporations, and even individuals (e.g. the President, business leaders, and movie stars) who are concerned about attacks from gunman and other criminals, and therefore have armed guards.

Fortunately there is a recent major published study (https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=202210...) about simple, inexpensive, yet effective steps universities can and should take to deal with the now-clearly foreseeable risk of a gunman on campus, and Banzhaf suggests that his university adopt more of its recommendations; it has already adopted its suggestion to install locks on all classroom doors.

http://banzhaf.net/   jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com   @profbanzhaf