While all states allow concealed carry, most states forbid carrying guns on school grounds. Over the years, the Republican rulers of my adopted state of Florida have considered bills that would allow concealed carry on the campuses of the state’s public universities. Other states have already passed such laws. While there is the issue of whether this is a good idea, my focus is on professors who might refuse to allow guns in their classrooms and offices.
While I am not a lawyer, it is likely that professors lack the legal authority to impose such bans. Since I am not a lawyer, I will leave the legal matters to the experts. Instead, I will focus on the moral aspects of such bans.
One moral argument in favor of the professors is based on an assumption that they have the right to ban things they regard as morally offensive from their classrooms and offices. So, a professor who is morally opposed to guns could refuse to allow them. This is analogous to religious freedom arguments used to justify a business not providing coverage of contraception or denying services to same sex-couples. The idea in all these cases is that the moral interest of one person overrides that of another, thus justifying the rights of one person overriding that of another. In the case of guns, it is the right of the professor to teach and hold office hours in a gun-free environment that overrides the right of others to carry guns.
A reply to this argument, as can be used in the religious “freedom” cases, is that the right of the professor to restrict the right of students is not justified: their right to carry a weapon trumps the professor’s right to be in a weapon free zone. This would be somewhat like how the right of a same-sex couple to marry trumps the “right” of religious people to live in a country without same-sex marriage.
Another reply is to draw an analogy aimed at showing the absurdity of such a professorial ban. Imagine a professor who has a deep and abiding moral opposition to birth control and wants to ban them from her classroom and office. This includes birth control that is being “concealed” in the body (for example, a woman on the pill). While the professor cannot see it, she claims that its mere presence is morally intolerable to her. But it would be absurd to claim that the professor has the right to ban the presence of birth control. A similar argument could be made with smart phones: a professor can forbid their use in class because they can be disruptive and be used to cheat, but they cannot refuse to allow students to have them. As such, professors do not seem to have the right to ban guns simply because they are morally offended by them.
A better moral argument is the safety argument: a professor could be concerned about people being shot (intentionally or accidentally). Some of my colleagues have claimed there would be a chilling effect if guns were allowed on campus: people might be afraid to discuss contentious issues out of fear of being shot. Some also considered that professors might be inclined to grade easier to avoid getting shot.
There are legitimate safety concerns about allowing guns on campus. However, there are two obvious points to consider. The first is that guns are already allowed in many places and people do not seem especially disinclined to engage in contentious discussions or to not do their jobs properly because someone might shoot them with a legally carried gun. As such, unless campuses are simply special places, this concern does not warrant a special ban on campus carry. Put another away, if guns are allowed almost everywhere else, then without a relevant difference argument, they should be allowed on campuses. Secondly, as I point out to my colleagues, people can easily carry guns illegally on campus. If someone intends to kill a professor over a bad grade or a heated discussion (which has happened) they can just illegally bring a gun to campus to illegally shoot someone. In contrast with the prison style K-12 schools, college campuses are usually open places. A professor’s ban on guns would not provide a greater degree of safety, even if the professor was able to enforce such an almost certainly illegal ban.
Interesting, the state legislatures who pass concealed carry on campus laws almost always forbid people to bring guns to the legislature where they work. While this shows inconsistency, it does not show the law is wrong. It does, however, point towards a relevant difference argument: perhaps the campus is relevantly like the legislature. My view is that whatever arguments the state legislature advances for allowing guns on campus should also apply to carrying guns into the legislature. If they are worried they might be shot, then the same concern would apply to campuses and, one must think, everywhere else.