No, we did not think this — our third take on this legislation — would be the charm for defeating HB 2519.
But it might help install a backbone in WVU to reject such bills as the so-called Campus Self-Defense Act.
On Wednesday, HB 2519, was moved to the inactive calendar, effectively killing it on Crossover Day (the 50th day of the 60-day session) in the Legislature, the last day to move a bill from one chamber to another.
Our newspaper was on the record about this bill weeks ago. We did not support it — with or without exemptions.
But despite WVU claiming not to support this bill, either, it engaged in timid, misguided negotiations for certain exemptions.
We are still confused why WVU’s administration was so weak-kneed about a subject that clearly compromises campus safety.
Could it be some kind of need to be on the side that’s winning, a quid pro quo or simply the university was willing to just give up.
As a rule, people should support or vote for what they want even if they won’t get it, rather than support or vote for what they don’t want and get it.
Everyone, in and out of the public eye, will always face setbacks, failures or defeats. But when asked to give up, accommodate or compromise with issues as grave as public safety we hope they’ll say — as we do — “Hell no.”
Always choose the harder right over the easier wrong.
It did seem all but apparent the Legislature was prepared to pass what many call the Campus Carry Bill. If it had advanced to the Senate we suspected its passage was all but certain. Yet, though it ultimately jammed in the House it almost misfired on other procedural votes.
Which is contrary to WVU’s message that it only negotiated on this bill after assuming the likelihood of its passage.
There was a significant amount of support for this bill, but there was always opposition, too, in the Legislature and among WVU’s faculty and students.
Admittedly, the majority of legislators appeared to support this bill but who’s to say that with WVU’s unqualified opposition HB 2519 may have died earlier.
Allowing for concealed handguns in classrooms should not be accommodated or “contained,” any more than allowing smoking or BYOB in them.
It should go without saying (but probably doesn’t), the main flaw in WVU’s kind of thinking, casually casting the truth aside is a dangerous road to travel.
As Atticus Finch noted in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” courage is not a man with a gun.
“It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.”
WVU should never work with legislators to appease them or itself about matters this great.
Its aim should be steady — to defeat such bills and the potential threats they pose.
