To the editor:

If you think a Confederate flag is a disruptive influence on school grounds, wrap your head around campus carry. The decision has been made in Topeka to not just allow guns on campus but to find solutions to all the accompanying security problems it creates and pay for them. 

While I appreciate the fact that Chancellor Gray-Little carries the burden of communication in representing Kansas University with our legislators and the fact that there is a serious divide today between higher education versus perceived constitutional rights, I would like to encourage the chancellor to dare to be a true leader and defy the powers-that-be. I believe that in the interest of all her faculty and students, she has the obligation to say “no” to guns on campus. That would take guts, and that would make headlines that could make a difference. There would be fallout, but it would galvanize this community and other campuses across the state and possibly beyond.

There is not one good reason why anyone must bring a gun to class, and there are a multitude of reasons why they should not. Here again, conservative politics bypasses basic logic and threatens the sanctity of good learning environments. Can there be a better reason to draw a line in the sand? I believe the time has come to make our voices and values ring as loudly as the intensity of an exploding firearm and as many times as it takes to be heard in the halls of Topeka.