Decision to be made on firearm policies

In Sunday's Student Senate meeting Jae Baker, president of a new student organization aimed at empowering women and their second amendment right, Females for Firearms, made a statement in response to UND's gun control policies, including the current issue of the forbiddance of weapons in on-campus apartments. A decision for the policy will be made later this week.

"The function of the club right now is to educate people on all different aspects of firearms, which include what type they are and what they are used for," she said. "Some people don't even know the difference between shotguns and protection pieces."

She said that the group informs people by starting from the ground up and works their way up to safety techniques.

Baker herself is an advocate for gun rights. She said that UND students should have the right to bear arms in their apartments, as well as carry them on campus.

"In terms of people being able to carry weapons on campus, I don't believe that an establishment of higher education should have the ability to take away rights written in our constitution," she said. "It's too bad if you don't like those rights, but you shouldn't have the right to take them away."

"Until you change the amendment, you shouldn't be able to change the right to bear arms, but they found a loophole," she added.

Gregory Plautz, president of UND Students for Concealed Carry, supports Baker's opinion. "If someone is a permit holder and is certified to carry a concealed firearm, they should have the right to defend themselves," he said. "It gives students the opportunity to defend themselves should a situation arise," Plautz said. "The only action would be a reaction by campus police, and by the time they would respond the situation would be over, as Virginia Tech showed. Students in this case are 100 percent defenseless."

Duane Czapiewski, chief of the University Police Department, said there are legitimate reasons for the university's weapon policies, which include the prohibition of weapons in residence halls, on any property of the university and in a vehicle parked on campus.

"We are talking about a school, and obviously we are talking about 18-year-olds and older, but you don't take guns to other schools," he said. "There are always people who bring their guns for sporting events such as hunting, but there is a world of difference between shooting at a target or an animal than from shooting a human being."

Czapiewski also said that in the case of a school shooting, allowing weapons on campus would only cause more danger than safety.

"Should we have a shooting on campus, we'd have to remove the shooter and we wouldn't know who the shooter is when a number of students are carrying weapons," he said. "This would result in a high probability of an innocent person being shot by law enforcement."

The department is working with the university to establish a UND gun policy that does not allow students to keep their guns with them in on-campus apartments. Baker said that this policy infringes on the rights of students.

"Chances are, going to a university, you are an adult. On-campus apartments are generally housing for people who are older and old enough to know how to properly handle a gun, especially in a hunting community such as ours," she said.

Baker said she was also distressed by the lack of consideration administration had for the students' voice. "When the housing office took a survey on all campus resident apartments asking if they wanted to change the weapon policy to exclude weapons in the apartments, including bows, mace, knives that are five inches or longer, and water guns, the results showed that 65.8 percent of residents said they wanted no such change," she said.

Plautz echoed Baker's concerns over the infringement on personal rights. "I feel that the university is putting their own policy in front of the students and completely ignoring what the students' wishes are."