Forty Kansas State University distinguished professors have signed a letter to the Legislature, seeking to halt the plan to allow concealed weapons on campus, the university reported Wednesday.
In their letter posted on K-State's announcements page Wednesday morning, the professors projected that allowing students and others to carry weapons would not prevent intentional shootings but would probably lead to more suicide and accidental deaths.
"Suicide is a threat to people of traditional college age; death by gunshot is the most prevalent suicide mortality," the letter said. "We believe that easier access to guns will mean losing more of our students to suicide."
In addition, it said: "University classrooms, labs, libraries, athletic venues, and other public spaces bring people in close proximity to one another. Accidental shootings cannot occur in the absence of guns and we believe more guns will increase the likelihood of accidental shootings of our co-workers, our students and the guests who come to our campuses."
Distinguished professor is a lifetime title and K-State's highest faculty honor, presented to those who have made outstanding contributions in research and instruction.
Three-fourths of the professors signing the letter represent scientific disciplines including biology, physics, chemistry, agricultural sciences and anthropology.
The list also included two music professors, two English professors and professors of political science, American ethnic studies and family studies and human services.
The professors are asking the Legislature to grant universities "permanent relief" from the Kansas Personal and Family Protection Act.
That 2012 law set a schedule for opening public buildings to concealed carry of firearms, unless the building is secured with metal detectors and armed guards.
State universities will have to open their campuses to guns by July 1, 2017.
This year, the Legislature passed a follow-up measure establishing "constitutional carry," which allows anyone who can legally own a gun to carry it concealed and loaded without having to obtain a permit or complete any training.
Rep. John Whitmer, R-Wichita, said he thinks it's extremely unlikely that the Legislature will grant requests for university exemptions.
"We knew that (campus carry) was in there when we passed it," Whitmer said. The bill allowing permitless carry sailed through both houses by "large bipartisan majorities," 85-39 in the House and 31-8 in the Senate, he said.
"Those numbers are veto-proof numbers," Whitmer said.
Whitmer said he talked to students and found varied views on campus. "Some kids in western Kansas learn to shoot before they learn to drive," he said.
The Eagle found much the same opinion split when interviewing students at the three major universities, K-State, University of Kansas and Wichita State.
A systemwide survey of students' opinions on guns on campus is currently underway, with results expected this month.
The Board of Regents, which runs the state university system, is trying to come up with a policy that complies with the law but minimizes gun danger on campus.
A draft policy circulated by the board would require campuses to provide secure storage spaces for guns and allow students to use their own locked storage in their dorm rooms. Persons who choose to carry would be prohibited from displaying firearms except when necessary for self-defense or when transferring their gun from storage to concealment on their person.
The draft policy also would require attendees at sporting events to go through a full metal-detector screening instead of the current light bag searches now conducted at most events.
Whitmer said there is a possibility that if the regents request it, legislators could give serious consideration to a compromise bill that would still allow guns on campus, but let the universities restrict them in areas like laboratories where an accidental discharge could cause an explosion or release hazardous chemicals or biological material.
The professors say the easy gun policy will make it harder to recruit faculty and students to K-State and could drive "valuable members of our campus community" to other universities.
"We believe that the unrestricted presence of guns in our classrooms, offices, lecture halls and other spaces will make us and our students feel less safe," the professors wrote. "It will compromise the open door policy many of us maintain, in which students and others are free to drop by our offices to consult or converse.
"It will make students less open to working together with others whom they may not know well, and will adversely affect their educational experience. We believe that by compromising the safety of our community members, sanctioning guns on campus goes against the mission of the university."
(c)2015 The Wichita Eagle (Wichita, Kan.)