Duck and deer season are just around the corner here in Arkansas. Many of us support the Second Amendment and love the pastime and sport of hunting. I am a hunter. As a former college president, however, I have been unable to get the recent Umpqua Community College in Oregon shootings off of my mind.
For that matter, the past mass shootings on many school campuses and in other venues haunt me because of my own experience and because I know more must be done to prevent these events.
No matter your political party we know this to be true. We as a nation need to do something to stop these tragedies from happening. This came out loud and clear in the Democratic presidential debates on Oct. 13. To a person each supported greater gun control. I am not sure I agree with their versions of solutions, but we must find one.
After 12 productive years as president of Hendrix College, returning to the faculty has been a reinvigorating and eye-opening experience for me. Being a faculty member today is hard work.
I would like to point out that both the new president, Bill Tsutsui, and the Chairman of the Board, David Knight, are doing an excellent job in making campus safety a top priority for Hendrix College. Other college, university and school presidents should follow their example.
I decided to step down from the Hendrix presidency in 2013 largely because it was time for new leadership. Executive positions have a “shelf life.” Another reason I choose to step down from being president, however, was that in December 2012, my family and I experienced a violent tragedy from which we needed time to recover. On Christmas day 2012, we hosted a party in our Hendrix College home for international students and staff who had nowhere to go for break. It was a joyous day and a celebration of religious, national, ethnic and racial diversity.
Unfortunately on that same snowy Christmas night, my family and I were the victims of a home invasion by an ostensibly armed intruder. The intruder attacked me and threated to kill my wife, my children and me. Fortunately, I was able to confront the intruder with a weapon I had in my house as a result of having gone through the training involved in obtaining a concealed-carry permit. Chaos followed.
In a state of shock, even with police present and asking me to put the weapon I had away, I continued stand my ground and to do what I thought was right to protect my family. As a result of this trauma, my family underwent extensive counseling. It has taken my family two years to even openly talk about what happened that night.
From this experience, I learned valuable lessons about gun violence, police practices and reactions in subduing a dangerous assailant, and how police and first responders must be willing to put their lives at risk to honorably protect the innocent. I learned how such events happen quickly, get out of control, and produce fear, terror and unpredictable reactions in everyone involved. When lives are at stake, particularly the lives of loved ones, there is no reliable way to predict how you will react or the impact such a situation will have on you.
In retrospect, during the terror and shock of the events of that night I made mistakes. I learned, however, how difficult it is for the people involved to even remember accurately the exact details of a tragedy that occurs in mere seconds. In such situations, it is easy for people on social media and others to mischaracterize and second-guess the reactions of the victims or the first responders involved. Through God’s grace, I have realized the importance of forgiveness and reconciliation for healing from such a violation.
We were fortunate that no one was killed that night. Despite the fortunate outcome of our home invasion, this terrible event has given me a unique sympathy for all victims of incidents involving violence, particularly for families that have had loved one’s killed and injured. These incidents of mass shootings have become all too familiar.
As a leader I have learned from this crucible life experience. This tragedy has given me valuable insight into policies, systems and practices that can make institutions prepared for such potential tragedies and students and the community safer as a result. While at Hendrix, I implemented a system called H-Alert that uses cell phones in a unique fashion to warn the community immediately of any threats. Such warning systems are not, however, enough to address the problem of gun violence in our country.
More must be done. Forget about the political party you belong to and think of an America free of such mass tragedies. How many more will it take?
3 comments
You had a weapon at a Hendrix-owned residence? Is that not part of a gun-free zone?
Clearly there is a need to deny purchases of assault weapons and also a need to make it more difficult for those who have been diagnosed as mentally unstable and those on the FBI ‘s dangerous to national security list to purchase any weapon.
First, true assault weapons are already banned.
Second, those diagnosed a mentally unstable are already banned from buying a firearm. This issue is the balance of the right to privacy of the mentally ill vs. the reporting of such diagnosis. Of course, there is also the reliability problem of such a diagnosis: maybe doctors should be held responsible for not properly identifying those under their care of commit violent acts?
Third, even the ACLU sees problems with providing for proper due process in denying those pesky constitutional rights. You know like rights to due process, being able to face your accusers, oh, and the right to bear arms.