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After Ferguson cops greeted unarmed protesters with tear gas and combat vehicles, there was public gnashing of teeth over whether police departments really need military gear, acquired from the Pentagon through the federal 1033 transfer program. Some national politicians, notably Republican Senator Rand Paul, criticized the militarization of law enforcement.

Military surplus ends up not only in the hands of big-city police departments or suburban police departments like the one in Ferguson, but even—as it turns out—on college campuses. Last week The Chronicle of Higher Education revealed that nearly 120 colleges and universities have acquired equipment through the 1033 program since 1998.



Working off of records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, The Chronicle found that colleges collected equipment running the gamut from office supplies to M-16s to weapons one would only expect to find on a battlefield. The Arizona State University police received 70 M-16s. Lincoln University, in Missouri, ordered 15 military backpacks and 20 bayonets. And the University of Central Florida police department owns an M-79 grenade launcher.

Some college professors and administrators defend the acquisition of Pentagon equipment for campus police by arguing that 1) the gear is free and 2) why not?

An associate professor of criminal justice at Fort Valley State University in Georgia, Michael Qualls, who previously worked for campus police departments, told The Chronicle: “If we continue on with the 1033 program, as those items become obsolete at the military level and if they become available, why not get ‘em? It’s better to be prepared than not prepared.”

But the “better safe than sorry” totally ignores the possibility that owning such weapons could create the urge to use them. That isn’t to suggest that campus cops will open fire on students for no reason, but they could well overreact to a protest—just as the Ferguson police did. Owning grenade launchers and M-16s could also convince well-meaning campus police chiefs that they can handle violent incidents—like a live shooter, for instance—when they should probably depend on the local or state police.

Possession of military assault weapons sends a downright bizarre message as to what the campus police see as their purpose, or mission. They exist to keep the peace, not subdue a hostile population, but students might feel otherwise if they encountered their supposed protectors in assault gear and bayonets.