How College Sports Programs are Being Affected by Gun Laws and Campus Policies

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At the University of Alabama, a player reportedly gave someone a gun which was then used to kill somebody. Meanwhile, at New Mexico State University, a player avoided legal trouble when he said he had shot and killed someone in self-defense even though he shouldn’t have been carrying a gun in the first place.

A really bad thing happened at Michigan State University. After three students were killed in a shooting, all the sports teams had to stop playing games. At LSU, their best wide receiver was taken away by police because he had brought a gun with him while he was on the streets of New Orleans. He wasn’t charged though.

Recently, it has been difficult for athletic departments to figure out which gun laws should apply to their school’s programs and how to tell their players about them. According to a study done by the Associated Press that looked at over a dozen schools taking part in NCAA tournaments, there are many different regulations on guns amongst these schools, as well as diverse methods of trying to control them.

Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo was asked what he should say to players who legally own a gun, and he said he wasn’t sure. Mississippi State coach Chris Jans said that he didn’t know the right answer to the same question.

The NCAA doesn’t have a policy specifically about guns, but rather they view it as a law enforcement matter. That means that any rules related to guns when it comes to sports teams are made of something like state laws, university policies, and what the student-athletes learn in their handbooks. Sometimes, these rules can even be set by coaches and changes in recent months show how difficult it is to know what is right and wrong when it comes to something so serious like life or death.

Marquette coach Shaka Smart said even though he has an opinion about guns, he does not talk about it to his players because he does not want to get scolded.

Smart also said that his players and him didn’t keep a gun in their car. He did not approve of anyone else doing this either but stopped short of passing any judgment on them.

Guns are not allowed in buildings at Marquette University. However, at Kansas State University, you can carry a gun on school grounds if it’s legally owned. Jerome Tang, the coach of K-State said that students need to be aware that even though they can possess a gun, it may not always be the best decision. Get a license when they’re older if they choose to, but for know it might not be the smartest choice.

Our research shows that several different rules about weapons exist in schools and sometimes these rules differ even from school to school within the same state. The student-athlete handbooks only explain what the regular policies say about weapons.

At the University of Houston and University of Texas in Austin, carrying a gun openly is not allowed. However, there are certain areas on these campuses where you can carry a concealed weapon; these areas can be found if you search the schools’ websites. During major events like The Final Four – which are held in Dallas (women) and Houston (men), guns are actually prohibited so they won’t be allowed at those sites either.

This year, a law in Alabama was passed that allowed people to carry guns openly without needing a permit. However, it’s still not okay to bring guns into school. The police have said that one of the suspected shooters of 23-year-old Jamea Harris, Brandon Miller, supplied the gun used in the shooting.

Even though Miller has not done anything wrong, the school is still confused about what to do with him. He’s still playing on his team, which is expected to win the tournament starting this Thursday.

It took the police more than a month to find out that Miller had given a gun to Darius Miles, one of his teammates. On account of this, Darius was removed from the team and then faced legal charges in connection with Harris’ death. Greg Byrnes, who is in charge of sports at the school, said that they are here only to help law enforcement but not investigate or obstruct their work.

At New Mexico State, a shooting occurred that caused the death of a student from University of New Mexico. Mike Peake, an NMSU student, stated he defended himself when he shot Brandon Travis in November while they were in Albuquerque on a trip together.

Guns are not allowed on New Mexico State’s school grounds or on their trips. Despite this, police say Peake brought a gun with him on the team bus and it took 16 days for school to kick him off the team after he shot someone.

Rus Bradburd, a former coach and professor at New Mexico State, once said that it’s the same with a basketball team – even though there isn’t an actual rule saying you can’t bring a gun on the bus, it’s something everyone knows they should avoid. It’s like wearing pants to a faculty meeting – although nowhere in the rules says you have to do this, it is just expected behavior.

Malik Nabers, a player on LSU’s team, got in trouble with the school for something he did but he won’t lose any playing time. He was arrested for having a gun on Bourbon Street last month, even though in Texas where you don’t need a permit to carry one, he wouldn’t have been arrested.

An LSU employee told the Associated Press (AP) that they are definitely worried about guns and student athletes. The employee wished to remain anonymous because this topic is a sensitive subject. They also said that there’s a lot of guns and it’s something that must be addressed among other issues.

Last autumn at Virginia, the football team cancelled their last game when a former player named Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. was accused of killing three players and injuring two people on campus. They found guns in his dorm room where usually no weapons are allowed.

This passage talks about how it’s hard to always know what every student on a campus is doing, and also how difficult it can be for sports leaders when their programs get talked about after an incident involving guns.

Mike Marlow, the athletic director at Northern Arizona, where guns are not allowed, said: “We hope to guide kids away from violence as well as drug use and other bad activities.” He shared that it is important to have a culture in place that discourages this behavior even though sometimes it’s legal.

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