This past weekend I decided to forgo patronizing the Uptown bars for a more responsible and constructive on-campus activity ' buying a gun.
Or rather, watching people buy guns.
On Saturday, the Friends of NRA had a banquet at Nelson Commons. The roughly 300 to 350 people in attendance had a good ole time bidding on memorabilia, entering raffles to win firearms at the banquet and playing kid-friendly games, like ring toss (using a mechanized, mounted, talking deer head).
It was such a good time; I wondered why the university did not actively promote the event as an alternative to drinking.
Then it hit me, like the kick from the shotgun that was given away as a prize to young man no older than 15 (with his parent's permission of course).
The reason that Ohio University didn't promote such an event was because the nature of the festivity violates the spirit of OU's Workplace Violence Policy, which calls the carrying or displaying of weapons unacceptable behavior for university employees. Not to mention it violates the spirit of the Student Code of Conduct, too. Now, to be clear, it was not technically OU personnel displaying the firearms, but the university did allow the Friends of NRA to have the banquet on university property and have students employed by Baker Catering work the event.
According to John Burns, OU director of legal affairs, exceptions to the university's ban on firearms can be made for artistic reasons
like a play or the cannon at OU football home games. Or if the university determines that the exception is reasonable and overseen by a responsible group.
To be fair, the Friends of NRA were responsible. The guns at the event were not loaded, and winners of the auctions and raffles did not walk out of Nelson with a gun in their warm, live hands. Instead they had to go to the local Ohio Valley Trade & Exchange and fill out the proper paperwork to pick up their auction-style purchases.
Also, it is only proper that the Friends of NRA receive the same treatment that any other group that wants to come to campus is given. Its members have a legal right to own a gun, and that should not be infringed upon. It just would be nice if the pro-gun lobby could come up with a better justification than citing the most vague passage of the Constitution, and one that is irrelevant in modern times considering that the U.S. of A. has a standing army and does not need to rely on a militia for self-defense.
But the scope of the issue is not the Friends of NRA's right to come to campus, but rather the appearance of impropriety and hypocrisy on the part of the university. Whether the weapons were loaded or not is inconsequential, as is whether the event was legal. This reasonable exception is actually not that reasonable considering the university's track record.
According to OU policy, students, professors and staff are prohibited to bring guns onto campus (without an exemption), just like underage students are forbidden to have empty liquor bottles in their rooms ' even if they are just for decoration.
If that example seems a bit of a stretch consider that as an institution in 2002 (pre-President McDavis) OU tried to force journalism professor Pat Washburn to remove an antique Civil-War rifle from his office. Now, it is a legitimate argument that it looks bad for a professor to have a firearm, even if it is a family heirloom, in his office. But it looks just as bad for OU to sanction bringing an arsenal into a place where new students eat their Precollege meals.
Once again OU has put itself onto shaky public relations ground, and it is frustrating because the problem could have been avoided if OU would have stipulated that the Friends of NRA use photos, with detailed descriptions, instead of the actual weapons.
Much like how Frank Solich's drunken driving incident occurred at a time when the university was preaching personal responsibility and gearing up for a hard-line stance against alcohol, the university's actions don't coincide with its policy and rhetoric. And the rationale behind the discrepancies appears to be motivated by simple economics. Solich was too much of a cash cow to let go, and the Friends of NRA were probably just itching to hand over a wad of money to the university to have the event here '- 17
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Dan Rinderle
