Bills to Allow ROTC to Carry Weapons on Campus (Alabama)

[KeepItReal]

"State Sen. Hank Erwin, R-Montevallo, introduced bills to allow ROTC students and any professor with a license to carry guns on campus.

Erwin's bill would allow only ROTC students with licenses and no felonies or misdemeanors on their records to carry guns on campus.

"I did that so nobody could say I'm trying to create a wild-west atmosphere," Erwin said. "(It's only the) upper-echelon, best of the best, cream of the crop."

Rachel Parsons, a spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association said the NRA approves of Erwin's bill." "

http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,162389,00.html


<< Comment/Rant >>

This is one of the most ill-informed pieces of legislation I've ever heard of.

ROTC cadets are not muthaf*cking campus police! We are/were students just like the rest of our classmates. Just because we wear uniforms to class on certain days of the week does *not* mean that we signed up to be campus/local law enforcement.

This legislator (if his bill passes) won't be there to see ROTC students go from being respected (or just simply ignored) by the student body to being objects of attention and possible anger due to the live weapon they would or could be carrying.

If his bill passes, the first order (I hope) any ROTC cadet/cadre commander would be to ban any cadet from bringing/wearing a weapon on campus. We are *issued* weapons by cadet/cadre commanders for *specific* training purposes and return them to secure storage when that purpose is met.

Uniformity is the Word in the Military. We start learning that in ROTC. Is a cadet commander supposed to let someone stand in the formation with a Glock semi-automatic handgun on his/her belt while his/her fellow cadets stand there unarmed?

This "legislator" needs to concentrate on figuring out what causes hurricanes (1) and not trying score NRA points by playing politics with students who are in the business of learning and possibly becoming United States Military Officers.


KeepItReal
Cadet E-5 (former)
US Army ROTC
Orleans Battalion
New Orleans, LA

(1) Henry Eugene Erwin, Jr - "He is most widely known for his public declarations in the fall of 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, in which he described his "religious belief" that the storm may have been a deliberate act of God's wrath."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Erwin

[SoxFan]

1. Orleans BN

When were you in ROTC at Tulane/Dillard? I received my commission there in 1996.

[KeepItReal]

4. Yep! Dillard for Basic Course classes and Tulane for Ranger Co.

:-)

We just missed each other!

I was in ROTC Basic Course 90-92.

Alot of my classmates got called up for Desert Storm (were in National Guard). Fortunately they never made it farther than Ft. Hood, TX. before the war ended.

[SoxFan]

6. Ah, yes

The Great 256th Infantry Brigade Debacle of 1991!

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Crazy!

[margotb822]

3. If they don't carry weapons at military academies

why would they need to in ROTC? I'm sure the supporters are going to say that it's 2nd amendment "rights," but I think that if a campus needs security, they should hire professionals. On 9/11 I stood watch and accounted for people, while Marines guarded the campus. And, no one got hurt. I believe that more guns are just more opportunity for accidents.

USNA 2005

[KeepItReal]

5. Right!

The Pentagon ain't gonna allow cadets to do this most likely.

[lonestarnot]

7. bat shit for brains.

[DemoTex]

8. Imagine Douglas C. Niedermeier with a firearm in "Animal House"!

http://emulsioncompulsion.com/gallery2/d/38085-2/Douglas+Niedermeier.jpg
Douglas C. Niedermeier
Sergeant-at-Arms
Faber College