Kansas Profs Resigning Over State’s New Campus Carry Law

Kansas Profs Resigning Over State’s New Campus Carry Law

Well, there are still plenty of other colleges to work at that don’t allow any guns on campus.

Red Alert Politics reports:

Triggered professors resign over new pro-gun campus law

A Wichita State University professor is resigning over a Kansas campus open-carry law that is set to take effect this summer.

“Clear, open, critical discussion cannot take place in an environment of threat and fear,” Deborah Ballard-Reisch wrote in a letter to University President John Bardo. “Guns on campus will make it that much more difficult for them to feel safe,” she wrote.

“As someone who has experienced gun violence personally, I do not feel safe with guns in the classroom.” Ballard-Reisch was robbed at gunpoint in 2014.

In 2013, Kansas passed a law permitting people to bring guns into public buildings, with a four-year extension for universities and community colleges to comply. The law on campuses takes effect on July 1. Two years later, Kansas eliminated a requirement for gun owners to obtain a permit by paying a licensing fee and completing an eight-hour training course.

“I’ve heard several legislators say this isn’t a big deal, that nobody cared and nobody was going to quit over this,” Ballard-Reisch, a tenured communications professor who taught at WSU for a decade, said. “And I thought, ‘No, I really am.’”

Ballard-Reisch added, “They may not care, but I think other people in this state who hold beliefs similar to mine will take some solace from the reality that somebody stood up and said, ‘No, I’m not working in this environment. …This is not OK.’”

Ballard-Reisch isn’t the only Kansas academic expressing outrage over the gun law. The University of Kansas’ Jacob Dorman resigned last month and, like Ballard-Reisch, publicly shared his letter with the announcement.

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