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Kansan Staff
news
NEWS MANAGEMENT
Editor-in-chief Lara Korte
Managing editor Christian Hardy
Digital operations editor
Matt Clough
Social media editor Emily Johanek
Associate social media editor Emily Juszczyk
ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT
Business manager Tucker Paine
Sales manager Mitch Tamblyn
SECTION EDITORS
News editor
Chandler Boese
Associate news editor McKenna Harford
Sports editor Amie Just
Associate sports editor Skylar Rolstad
Arts & culture editor Omar Sanchez
Associate arts & culture editor Courtney Bierman
Opinion editor
Vince Munoz
Visuals editor
& design chief
Roxy Townsend
Photo editor Missy Minear
Copy chiefs Candice Tarver Brendan Dzwierzynski Ashley Hocking
ADVISERS
Chief financial officer Jon Schlitt
Editorial adviser Gerri Berendzen
The University Daily Kansan is the student newspaper of the University of Kansas. The first copy is paid through the student activity fee. Additional copies of The Kansan are 50 cents. Subscriptions can be purchased at the Kansan business office, 2051A Dale Human Development Center, 1000 Sunnyside Avenue, Lawrence, KS., 60415.
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FROM GUN MONEY
PAGE 1
The Legislature has taken no such action, to the chagrin of many across the state and the University. Yet, in the last few months alone, the University has seen a great deal of anti-gun activity as a result of the impending expiration of the exemption.
universities or, "to allow our campus communities to choose whether or not weapons are allowed on our KU campuses."
The University has seen anti-gun protests, opposition in Student Senate campaigns, student lobbying, info sessions, the formation of faculty opposition groups, opposition from the University of Kansas Medical Center, explorations of increased insurance coverage, campus carry notification policies and more.
Despite the momentous efforts of University students, employees and community members, the Legislature refuses to allow colleges and universities to choose their own campus carry policies, despite the fact that a majority of college employees and students oppose campus carry.
Ron Barrett-Gonzalez, a professor of aerospace engineering, president of the Kansas Chapter of the American Association of University Professors and an expert in various weapons systems, believes this is because Kansas legislators listen more to gun manufacturers and lobbyists than Kansans in regard to gun policies.
According to National Institute on Money in State Politics, the Kansas State Rifle Association (KSRA) gave $24,850 in campaign contributions to Kansas Republicans running for office in 2014, with 50 House candidates receiving $250 each. Previously, the KSRA gave Republicans $6,000 in 2012 and $10,050 in 2010. In contrast, Democrats received $500 in 2016 and $1,750 in 2014.
KANSAN.COM/NEWS | THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 2017
"These people have been essentially bought off directly," Barrett-Gonzalez said. "They have been personally enriched by, not necessarily even the gun lobby, but by the gun manufacturers."
Barrett-Gonzalez said this special relationship between certain citizens and the arms industry that supplies them is known as the civilian armaments complex. Essentially, the arms industry uses its influence over citizens and legislators to alter public policy, Barrett-Gonzalez said.
2000 Dole Human Development Center 1000 Sunnyside Avenue Lawrence, Kan., 66045
"I see behind this direct interlinking between corporate profits and the making of laws," Barrett-Gonzalez said. "We are seeing a microcosm of that in the civilian-armaments complex. This is a mirror of the larger military-industrial complex that hits at the state level and has coupled its own corporate profits to changes in the legislature."
Barrett-Gonzalez said these policies directly harm Kansans.
Andrea Ringgenberg/KANSAN A sign stating, 'Public education under fire' is held during the protest on April 4. The protest is about the conceal and carry rule going into effect on July 1, 2017.
This is a mirror of the larger military-industrial complex that hits at the state level and has coupled its own corporate profits to changes in the legislature."
"I believe that the corrupting and co-opting influence of the civilian-armaments complex is so severe that it has clouded the decisions that are being made and so that the decisions that are being made are directly against the best interests of the people of the state of Kansas and certainly the youth," Barrett-Gonzalez said.
Barrett-Gonzalez said Kansas' politicians' collusion with weapons manufacturers is especially egregious.
Representative John Whitmer (R-Wichita) is a member of the Kansas House and a University alumnus who supports concealed carry on college campuses. Whitmer said Republican support of the bill has nothing to do with the NRA or with the KSRA.
"This industry is different because it deals in death," Barrett-Gonzalez said. "The idea that a group of people are making money on machines that would injure, maim or kill faculty, staff and students, impede our academic freedom, drive people away from our institutions of higher education, reduce our national and international standards and harm the most important investment that the taxpayers of the state has ever made, it's abhorrent to me and almost all faculty members."
"I don't think it really has anything to do with the NRA," Whitmer said. "The citizens recognize that there's a constitutional right. The majority of Kansans support Second Amendment rights and so the Legislature reflected that. I think it's strictly just a matter of the people of Kansas are pro-gun. We're a pro-guns state, and they support Second Amendment rights. I think that's what it comes down to."
Ron Barrett-Gonzalez Aerospace engineering professor
"My district is very supportive," Whitmer said. "They have to recognize that I'm representing my district, and I'm representing the interests of my constituents when I vote for Second Amendment rights. Whether or not I'm a gun owner or whether or not I care personally, I'm representing the interests of my districts, and sometimes people forget that."
Wichita State University showed stronger support for campus carry compared to other institutions. For example, only 66 percent of employees and 45 percent of students at WSU are opposed to campus carry. Whitmer said that he believes much of the anti-gun rhetoric is a result of fear mongering.
Whitmer said he understands the concerns of those who oppose campus carry but that he has a responsibility to his constituents.
"Some of it may be more emotional and more fearbased than based on logic or the factual data," Whitmer said. "It's an emotional issue, so I get that, but we've heard testimony from KU students who say that people are going to die and that there's going to be mass shootings. The evidence doesn't support that."
Whitmer said, historically, campus carry offers no harm to students.
"In the last 20 years, there have been 180 campuses that embraced campus carry," Whitmer said. "There has not been a single incident of gun-related vio-
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lence or gun-related suicide that can be attributed to the expansion of campus carry on campus."
Other Kansas universities have taken similar steps. Andrew Bennett, faculty senate president of Kansas State University, said that KSU has formed a taskforce to inform students on the new gun laws.
Additionally, Whitmer said he believes that the results of the surveys, such as the Docking surveys, are inaccurate as a result of fear tactics used by opponents of campus carry.
As July 1 approaches, the University will continue to inform faculty, staff, students and prospective students on campus carry policy. Campus carry information can be viewed on concealedcarry.ku.edu.
"There is a weapons policy taskforce," Bennett said. "They help prepare our basic weapons policy that has now been approved by the Board of Regents. They are currently working on plans to inform people about the policy."
Bennett said that 63 percent of KSU students, staff and faculty oppose campus carry. However, Bennett said there is less anti-gun activity at KSU than at the University.
"I don't think it has been as active here as it has been at KU, but I'm not that familiar with what's going on at KU," Bennett said. "There's certainly been people speaking out against it, there haven't been open protests yet. I don't think there will be, but I'm often surprised."
This summer, Kansas will join Colorado, Texas Arkansas, Utah, Mississippi Wisconsin and Oregon as states where campus carry is legal.
However, with another election in 2018, many view the fight over campus carry
laws as just beginning.
"We need to make those people who have so badly damaged the institutions of higher education across the state let them feel the pain," Barrett-Gonzalez said. "And they should feel the pain at the polls. We will do our damnest to convince everybody that they have cost the state jobs, they have weakened our educational institutions and they have threatened the lives of the students, staff and faculty of our state's largest enterprise, and it's not appropriate."
"I think they'll be those who still want it repealed, but I don't think their efforts will be fruitful," Whitmer said.
Presentations
However, Whitmer said that that efforts to repeal campus carry will not be successful.
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