Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

If ANY college PD should have them besides Brown, it should be URI. Besides the shootings and stabbings that occur on campus, URIPD respond on mutual aid to calls in South Kingstown- UNARMED! What good are they in a situation like that? I'm surprised SKPD even bothers to call, unless they need extra traffic cops or something.

In a world where 30 people can be slaughtered on a college campus in a matter of minutes by criminals who by their nature aren't deterred by "Gun Free Zones," it makes no sense to me at all to have unarmed police officers.

Your uncle was NOT unarmed. Also when approached by members of his own department, he was tragically shot, because, he DID NOT FOLLOW COMMANDS of the uniformed police officers on scene.

Another thing, what are the campus police officers going to do if God forbid, we have a situation like they had at Virginia Tech? Sit around and spray their pepper mace at them?

For years we have had school resource officers in our schools, they are armed. They sworn members of the community police force. Do you want to take the armed officer out of our high schools and middle schools?

The police officers on our college campuses are sworn law enforcement members. Not having a weapon is like going to the infamous "gun fight" with a knife.

You are all reacting to unjustified fears in an irrational manner. For example, if you are really concerned about incidents such as the Virginia Tech massacre, no one has adequately addressed how campus police would have been able to prevent such events by being armed. The United States military has problems with suicide bombers; obviously the amount/nature of our weaponry is not a solution for violence.

The gun debate is the purest form of fetishism: focusing on the tools, and not the source, of violence.

The tool is the focus of nearly all liberal attempts at gun control, LI. Now you don't even want the authorities to have them, nevermind private citizens.

Gun-Free Zones: support safer working conditions for criminals!

yes most certainly this officers should be armed. In order for these individuals to attain their position they must attend the same police academy (RI Municipal Police Academy)as any other law enforcement officer you would encounter in your daily life. What makes an armed criminal any different on a college campus than on the streets of our city and towns? Nothing. These law enforcement officers effect car stops, investigate and prosecute felonious crimes ( drug dealing, rapes,sexual assaults, assaults with deadly weapons) and the list goes on. All law enforcement agencies and officers within the state are required to have and abide by a use of force continuim. Within this continum are requirements and procedures that are required to be followed when an officer decides to use force in any given situation, be it less than lethal force ie. a punch in the mouth, pepper spray or a baton, to the the use of deadly force such a weapon as a department issue gun. These individuals have been trained in these practices when attending the police academy. Carrying and using a weapon is a very daunting responsibility that is instilled within you during your inital training as a law enforcement officer and is carried with you during your whole career. I equate this archaic policy in this day and age with training a heart surgeon and then putting him in the operating room with a butter knife.