Photograph by Kevin Clifford
A New Caliber of Responsibility - Part 1
by Sarah Cooper
Photo GalleryUniversity teachers may be packing heat in the classroom if Regent Stavros Anthony's proposal is passed.
Anthony envisions training University of Nevada, Reno faculty and staff as reserve police officers and equipping them with small firearms.
"It's something that I've been thinking about for a while," says Anthony. "We seem to have these mass shootings whether they are at a high school or a mall or what have you. I was trying to think of what we could do to stop this."
Anthony arrived at his solution after lining up the events of a mass shooting.
"The common denominator in all of these massive active-shooter scenarios was that no one else had a weapon except the bad guy and he just keeps shooting until the police show up. God bless the police for showing up, but there is always going to be some lag time."
On June 21 the Board of Regents and the Cultural Diversity and Security Committee recommended that directing staff bring back written proposals to the next meeting of the committee. Then Regent Anthony's safety measure will be revisited.
According to Chief of Police Adam Garcia, there is no difference between reserve officer's training and conventional police officer's training.
"They would be trained to the same levels of expertise as other police officers," says Garcia.
Participants in the program would take both oral and written exams and undergo a background check and psychological examination. They would also take polygraph and drug tests.
Anthony added that the reservists need ongoing police training, Nevada Peace Officers Standards and Training certification, costs covered by the university, voluntary participation and paid leave for individuals attending the academy.
According to Garcia, the reservist will attend four months of the police academy and then two to four months of training. That is only if the participant passes the barrage of preliminary tests.
"It could be about one year from the time of applying to the completion of the program," says Garcia.
Before the guns could go into the teacher's pockets, the Nevada System of Higher Education would have to reach into theirs. The price tag on the right to bear arms at a University is about $3,000 per reservist trainee.
"From my standpoint, it's an effective approach and it doesn't cost us a lot of money, which means we can implement it very quickly," says Anthony.
Anthony is sure that the Nevada System of Higher Education can find the money somewhere.
"We have a $2 billion budget so I'm sure we can find three or four thousand dollars somewhere. I don't think that is going to be an issue."
Identifying funding is the second step. First the Board of Regents needs to approve, or shoot down, the proposal based on research from Chief of Police Adam Garcia.
Chief Garcia is inspecting previous school shootings as he prepares a set of recommendations for the Board of Regents.
"The public always assumed that college campuses were safe," says Garcia. "The public needs to be aware of their surroundings."
Regent Anthony is not the only one to suggest that teachers carry firearms. In March 2007, Nevada State Senator Bob Beers presented Senate Bill 286, which would allow teachers to carry weapons on campus with appropriate training. The bill was killed in April by the Nevada State Senate Human Resources Committee.
"People seem to think that I came up with this idea off the top of my head," says Anthony. "It's been around for a while. I'm just looking at extending it."
Regent Anthony cited the National Reserve Law Officers Web site as a reference. The Web site defines reserve law enforcement units as "persons who are interested in the welfare of the People and in the protection of property in their community."
The site continues to describe a well-organized reserve division as "a readily available source of properly trained, backup manpower for both large and small Law Enforcement Departments."
Regent Anthony is not planning on giving out guns to just anyone on campus.
"These will be trained and qualified individuals who have completed this program," says Anthony. "It's not just handing somebody a gun."
Regent Anthony does not believe that the presence of firearms on campus will detract the quality of education at UNR.
"Really you are not even going to know who has one," says Anthony. "So I think it will have no impact whatsoever."
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
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