To arm or not to arm: Your views on PSafe’s new rifle policy

After months of debates and USG referendums about the arming of our PSafe officers, a decision has finally been reached.

They’ll now have access to rifles only in the case of campus emergencies – but not while on regular duty.

We asked students what they thought about PSafe’s new policy, whether or not they believed it was necessary, and whether they felt safer with the knowledge that some officers are now armed.

Quang, Freshman, possibly Woody Woo or Econ

“I believe that allowing public safety to carry firearms is a necessary change to make Princeton a safer place.

“While it is true that Princeton campus has a reputation of being safe, there’s always a chance that our university will some day experience an emergency and that its students will be put in a life-threatening situation.

“Even though I’ve always felt safe on this campus, I will definitely feel more secure, knowing that in case of emergency, the people who are supposed to protect me will be able to do that more effectively.”

Suren, Sophomore, Math

“I feel more negatively about it than positively. I don’t think it is necessary. I didn’t feel unsafe, and I don’t feel safer now.

“In more detail the issue is quite subtle. On one hand the fact that I didn’t hear about this before is a bit alarming and it makes me wonder if there was an open discussion with the student body. Normally I would expect one to take place, maybe it actually did and I didn’t hear, but it still skews my perception.

“Firearms are about the safety of officers as well as students, but again I have never heard of an incident warranting their necessity. Overall it seems like a change that is unfounded, and the fact that it just took place makes me feel less safe than otherwise.”

Natalie, Sophomore, potentially History

“I was glad to hear about this change. In all honesty, after the recent campus shootings as well as the FBI warning that included our campus, I felt unsafe and a bit alone in the sense that Princeton did not reach out to keep us informed nor did Princeton create an emergency plan that could inform students of what to do and how to respond in emergency situations such as an active-shooter on campus.

“With campus shootings becoming more and more frequent, we can no longer act as if these are rare occurrences that are unlikely to happen to us on our campus.

“The threat is real. We need a comprehensive and instantaneous alert system to make students and faculty aware of an event as well as plan informing student and faculty of what they should do in the event of an emergency.”

Rebecca, Junior, English

“It doesn’t make me feel unsafe because it’s Princeton, but Princeton is an exceptional place. I feel like in most places this is part of a larger trend of militarization that I do not feel comfortable with, and I would like to know more about the actual town police and why [PSafe] doesn’t feel they can just rely on the police.”

Tyler and Yuanyuan, Freshmen, Undecided

Tyler: “I’m uncomfortable with PSafe having access to rifles because I think the campus is pretty safe and we don’t rifles to try to make it any safer.”

Yuanyuan: “I don’t feel comfortable either. The campus is safe generally and remote. I honestly don’t see any kind of shooting going on here and it’s really unnecessary.”

Janet, Junior, EEB

“I don’t if I necessarily feel safer knowing that just because with everything that’s going on in the nation currently. I don’t know if I trust, or not trust, but it makes me nervous because I know how quickly people of color are racially profiled. As of right now I don’t feel safe, but I don’t feel unsafe either.”

Jeffrey, Sophomore, Math or Physics

“That is somewhat alarming, I guess. I do feel like it’s slightly unnecessary. It creates alarm when there isn’t really that much. This is Princeton and this is a generally safe area. If anything we could have the police, but we have PSafe to handle campus wide safety issues or anything that don’t involve guns.. If you think about the kinds of reports we get like fondness and lewdness, I think it’s a much different environment. I don’t think it’s bad but I’m kind of confused as to why this is happening.”

Jelani, Sophomore, COS

“I have heard that PSafe can use rifles and it kind of worries me because whenever you involve any type of gun in a situation where you have kids that are drunk or situations that are confusing, there’s no need to use a weapon with lethal force in an environment that doesn’t require lethal force.

“So it’s not necessary to deal with situations that could be dealt without any violence. And people can get hurt or killed.”