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<p>When Kevin Willmott stepped into a University of Kansas classroom wearing a bulletproof vest, his students immediately fell silent.</p><p>It was the professor&#8217;s way of protesting a state law that allows concealed carry on college and university campuses. The legislation, passed in 2013, was implemented over the summer at colleges and universities across the state.</p><p>Willmott said that when students and staff members returned to the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence last month, he wanted to let them know where he stands on the gun issue.</p><p>As he walked into the room on the first day of class, he said there was &#8220;an audible hush.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;One of the things I told them was, &#8216;You try to ignore that I&#8217;m wearing a bulletproof vest, and I&#8217;ll try to ignore that you could be packing a .44 Magnum,&#8217;&#8221; he said.</p><p>Willmott, 59, a professor of film and media studies, said in an interview that he does not fear his students, but he&#8217;s convinced that concealed carry on campuses is &#8220;a crazy idea.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve seen what happened in these horrible incidences at Sandy Hook and Virginia Tech and a bunch of places around the country,&#8221; Willmott told The Washington Post. &#8220;And I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s the students&#8217; job to turn into Rambo to try to take on somebody that might be out to do us harm.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;The whole idea is just insane, and it can only lead to bad things,&#8221; he added.</p><p>Campus carry has been a contentious issue at colleges and universities in multiple states, where students and faculty have protested similar gun policies. Students at the University of Texas at Austin, for example, attended a demonstration last year armed with sex toys instead of firearms to fight &#8220;absurdity.&#8221;</p><p>At that same school, an economics professor emeritus quit, telling university officials: &#8220;Out of self-protection, I have chosen to spend part of next fall at the University of Sydney, where, among other things, this risk seems lower.&#8221;</p><p>People also were debating the issue in Kansas last year ahead of the law&#8217;s implementation at state colleges and universities.</p><p>&#8220;When a gun is in a school and harm is meant, there is only one thing that is going to stop that &#8212; and that is another gun,&#8221; state Sen. Forrest Knox (R) said during a 2016 debate, according to NPR.</p><p>As for Willmott, he said the fact that firearms are concealed might make them more dangerous for everyone.</p><p>&#8220;If everybody had to walk around with guns strapped on their hips like in the Old West, I think people would be a lot less comfortable with it,&#8221; he said. &#8220;So me walking around with a bulletproof vest reminds everyone that this is actually going on.&#8221;</p><p>The University of Kansas&#8217; new weapons policy states that handguns must be secured in holsters and carried unloaded with the safety feature on.</p><p>Willmott, a feature filmmaker who has worked with Spike Lee and others, said he wanted to think of a visual way to respond to concealed carry.</p><p>Still, when he walked into his classroom on Aug. 22, he acknowledged it was &#8220;a little uncomfortable, because this is not the normal world.&#8221;</p><p>He read his students his syllabus and university&#8217;s weapons policy &#8212; along with an amendment of his own: Bulletproof vests would be permitted in his class.</p><p>Braden Robinson, a junior at the school, told the University Daily Kansan that he was in the class when Willmott announced his decision.</p><p>&#8220;I have mixed feelings about guns. I don&#8217;t think they&#8217;re all bad; I can see the reasoning for wanting to carry one,&#8221; Robinson told the student newspaper. &#8220;But I just don&#8217;t think that a place that promotes free speech should have guns. That would definitely affect someone&#8217;s willingness to talk, especially if they have an opinion that might be unpopular.&#8221;</p><p>However, the professor&#8217;s stance has been criticized by some who question his negative views of lawful gun owners.</p><p>Garrett Miller, identified as a conservative student by Campus Reform, told the news site that the professor&#8217;s assertions were &#8220;borderline ludicrous&#8221; because the university already has restrictive policies on free speech.</p><p>He also said Willmott&#8217;s point about the .44 Magnum is not relevant, telling Campus Reform that the professor &#8220;should have done research on what handguns are generally used for concealed carry.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Any gun expert will tell you that a .44 is not recommended for conceal carry due to the fact that a .44 is too bulky due to the size of the barrel and grip,&#8221; he said.</p><p>The university did not respond to requests for comment on the concealed carry policy or Willmott&#8217;s response to it.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>The Washington Post</p></bylineMeta></div>

Why this college professor is wearing a bulletproof vest to class