It would be rash to credit a 13 percent annual drop in crime at the University of Kansas (KU) to six months of legalized campus carry, but the new law certainly did not cause an increase in crime or a spike in weapons violations, according to The Sentinel.
In 2017, 671 criminal offenses were reported to KU police compared to 770 in 2016, a significant drop.
Again, it would be rash to suggest that would-be thieves feared an armed defense, but it is entirely reasonable to suggest that the law did not empower thieves to step up their game.
It would be equally rash, The Sentinel said, to tell virtue-signaling KU prof Kevin Wilmott that he no longer needs to wear a bullet-proof vest, but it is not too early to tell Wilmott that he rendered himself needlessly uncomfortable for however many days he has worn the vest since campus carry became law.
Wilmott made a national splash in August 2017 when he showily appeared on campus in his bullet proof vest. “Try to forget that I’m wearing a vest,” Wilmott said at the time to his imagined critics, “and I’ll try to forget that you could be packing a .44 magnum.”
According to the KU Office of Public Safety, there were zero weapons violations in 2017. Despite a near meltdown on campus by those like Wilmott indifferent or hostile to the Second Amendment, eight months have passed without incident since the law went into effect on July 1.
