OU Professor: ‘Self-Defense Is a Basic Human Right’ that Doesn’t End Where Campus Begins

On November 8, University of Oklahoma Professor David Deming contended that “self-defense is a basic human right” that does not end where the campus begins.

Stressing the need for campus carry, Deming warned that campuses are a huge soft target for “any terrorist [or] deranged individual,” and students and faculty on a campus are sitting ducks if denied the right to be armed for self-defense.

According to NewsOK, Deming explained that the feeling of safety on a college campus where guns are banned is illusory. He wrote, “University administrators have no way of keeping students, faculty and staff safe. A courtroom can be secured with doors, walls and metal detectors. But a college campus has miles of open borders open to any terrorist or deranged individual. The police do the best they can, but law enforcement typically take minutes to respond whereas it only takes seconds to shoot people.”

“Educational administrators” have their go-to arguments to fight against campus carry, like the frequently stated claim that “the mere presence of guns on campus will make the environment more dangerous.” But Deming shows they have no empirical evidence to back up such a claim. Instead, the evidence is actually that campuses have not become more dangerous in states where campus carry is legal.

For example, Breitbart News previously reported that campus carry has been the law of the land in Colorado since 2003, and the evidence demonstrates 12 years with no mass shootings and no crimes committed on campus by concealed carry permit holders.

Deming ultimately contends that campus carry is part of the basic human right to self-defense. It defies logic that individuals 21 and older with concealed carry permits can “carry guns every day in offices, retail stores, movie theaters and shopping malls” to defend themselves but are barred from doing so once they reach the geographic point where a college campus begins.

He wrote, “It is irrational to believe that a policy or a sign will stop a person intent on committing mayhem. Laws that disarm people only affect the law-abiding and responsible segment of society.” He argued that the coming Oklahoma legislative session should be used to “take preemptive action that makes people safer” by implementing campus carry.

Deming stressed that “self-defense is a basic human right.”

Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.