You may be immune to the hysterical rhetoric around the "Campus Guns" bill. You may be all wrapped up in it. You may be spreading it. Let's start with one steaming pile of stinking silliness: personal protection. As in "this isn't about someone over 21 years of age protecting themselves." Or even those 21+ year olds who willingly offer up their fingerprints and actually clear an FBI background check. What's that you say? You were told that every hung-over frat boy with a chip on his shoulder because a professor "gave" him a grade he didn't like was also being given guns and ammo.
It is actually about a right guaranteed in our Constitution, the one with the phrase "shall not be infringed" which seems to serve as an invitation to government at all levels to do just that. This includes our government-run public universities. It is not surprising that the natural habitat of left wing nuts would espouse a religion where "words matter" except those in the Constitution but the real problem is knowing just what is, and is not campus property. To wit:
It may look like a regular, commercial hotel offering short term lodging and convention facilities, but it is also an infringement zone. Is the nearby Classic Center part of UGA? It is not, but it is a government facility and guns are prohibited--at least they have signage. What about MSTC and The Meat Sale? Open to the public, no student/faculty/staff ID required. But it is on campus and current infringements apply. Same for the Georgia Museum of Art. Then there is the State Botanical Gardens, owned by the State, well off the main campus, but operated by UGA. The gardens include five miles of nature trails which might dredge up that self-defense bromide. Not to pick on just UGA, Tech, with it's expansion into midtown, has similar unmarked infringement zones.
What this bill is really about is uniformity of our statewide infringements (Georgia is not a constitutional carry state) extending equality of access to all without regard to their own personal arms identifications.
It is actually about a right guaranteed in our Constitution, the one with the phrase "shall not be infringed" which seems to serve as an invitation to government at all levels to do just that. This includes our government-run public universities. It is not surprising that the natural habitat of left wing nuts would espouse a religion where "words matter" except those in the Constitution but the real problem is knowing just what is, and is not campus property. To wit:
It may look like a regular, commercial hotel offering short term lodging and convention facilities, but it is also an infringement zone. Is the nearby Classic Center part of UGA? It is not, but it is a government facility and guns are prohibited--at least they have signage. What about MSTC and The Meat Sale? Open to the public, no student/faculty/staff ID required. But it is on campus and current infringements apply. Same for the Georgia Museum of Art. Then there is the State Botanical Gardens, owned by the State, well off the main campus, but operated by UGA. The gardens include five miles of nature trails which might dredge up that self-defense bromide. Not to pick on just UGA, Tech, with it's expansion into midtown, has similar unmarked infringement zones.
What this bill is really about is uniformity of our statewide infringements (Georgia is not a constitutional carry state) extending equality of access to all without regard to their own personal arms identifications.
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