English Professor Endorses Guns on Campus

David McGrath, an emeritus professor at the College of DuPage (Illinois), currently teaching English at the University of South Alabama, says yes to pistol-packing professors in today's Wisconsin State Journal.

Two years ago, I wrote an essay expressing skepticism about a Wisconsin legislator 's proposal to arm public school teachers. But that was before the mass murders at Virginia Tech, Louisiana Technical College, and Northern Illinois University, among others.

My perspective has since changed, because the country is changing cataclysmically. The killings on school campuses are now less an anomaly than a wave of terror. It demands new initiatives to safeguard the lives of American young people seeking a college education.

Training and equipping seasoned adults, who also happen to be select and exhaustively screened college professors, is a hopeful solution. My suggestion is for the institution of a voluntary program for willing, able and properly trained school personnel to carry weapons.

That Wisconsin legislator is, of course, Rep. Frank Lasee, who suggested keeping weapons in secure locations in schools several months ago.

Kudos to Prof. McGrath – it’s not easy to publicly admit such a dramatic change of opinion, especially working as he does in higher education. I wonder whether he'll be invited to the faculty picnic this year.

Say, isn’t there an opening on the UW Board of Regents?