Kansas professor wears bulletproof vest to protest gun law

Kevin Willmott, a professor of film and media studies at the University of Kansas, is wearing a bulletproof vest to class this year to protest a law that allows students to carry concealed handguns on campus

Kevin Willmott, a professor of film and media studies at the University of Kansas, is wearing a bulletproof vest to class this year to protest a law that allows students to carry concealed handguns on campus

Kevin Willmott, a professor of film and media studies at the University of Kansas, is sporting a bulletproof vest in class this year.

Willmott's unusual attire is not a fashion statement, however, but a protest against a law allowing for concealed handguns to be carried on the college campus.

"When I wear the vest in class it reminds everybody that someone could have a gun here in class," Willmott said.

"I thought wearing a vest was a way to really, in a sense, make them as uncomfortable as I am with the possibility of them having a gun," he told AFP in a telephone interview.

"It's heavy and it's a burden, but I decided to wear it for a year as a protest," the 59-year-old professor said. "I needed to respond in some kind of way."

The Kansas state legislature passed a "concealed carry" law in 2013 allowing handguns to be brought into public buildings but colleges and universities were given until July 1 of this year to work out how they would address the situation.

The policy adopted by the University of Kansas allows lawful gun owners over the age of 21 to have a handgun on campus provided it is concealed and secured in a holster, kept in a backpack or purse or locked in a vehicle.

Nine other US states besides Kansas also allow personal firearms on campus: Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Mississippi, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin.

- 'Foolish' -

Willmott believes allowing guns in school is "foolish" and dismisses the argument by concealed carry advocates such as the National Rifle Association that it makes schools safer.

"My response is that president Ronald Reagan was surrounded by the best good guys with guns in the world, the American Secret Service," he said.

"They were the best trained people in the world probably in terms of protecting a president," he said. "And the most unqualified person in the world passed by with a gun, shot him and almost killed him."

Reagan was wounded on March 30, 1981 by John Hinckley, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity and spent more than three decades in a mental institution.

Willmott, who collaborated with Spike Lee on a 2015 movie about Chicago gang violence, "Chi-Raq," said some of his students were taken aback when they saw him wearing the bulletproof vest for the first time.

"The first day I walked into class with the vest on there was kind of a hush and I think they were really surprised," he said.

"I said 'Well, just try to ignore that I'm wearing a vest, and I'll try to ignore that you could be packing a .44 Magnum,'" he said.

"I had a handout that I made available to them on a voluntary basis explaining why I would be teaching in a bulletproof vest," he said.

Willmott also said the presence of guns in the classroom -- even if unseen -- can stifle intellectual debate.

"People will be afraid to talk about the controversial things: race, gender, sexual orientation," he said.

"People tend to self-censor themselves when they think about the possibility of someone having a gun in class," he said.

"It is the opposite of free speech. It is the opposite of what university life was created for."

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