Does anyone blame the guy?

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By Barb Ickes | Monday, August 18, 2008 10:36 AM CDT | () comments

So far this year, 286 people have been given permits to carry concealed weapons in Scott County.

Unfortunately, suspended Palmer College of Chiropractic student Jason Rearick wasn’t one of them. He was arrested last week for carrying a loaded .32-caliber handgun in his backpack. Even if he had a permit to carry and conceal it, taking it to school was a no-no.

Palmer’s code of ethics lists the possession of firearms among 60-some forbidden behaviors. Here’s the wording:

“Illegal or unauthorized use, possession or storage of firearms … even if legally possessed, in a manner that harms, threatens or causes fear to others.”

The presence of the gun on campus evidently caused somebody fear, because a classmate notified campus security, which then notified Davenport police. He was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and was suspended.

When Rearick was questioned about the gun, he said he had no intention of harming anyone. He carried it for personal protection because he didn’t feel safe in the neighborhood surrounding his apartment at 121 W. 13th St., Davenport.

Who can doubt that?

If you look at the police department’s crime statistics for much of the area surrounding Palmer, you can see why somebody might pack a little something. Or you could just wander over there after dark some night and see what happens to your heart rate.

In 2006, the most current year for available stats on Palmer’s Web site, police reported the following for a multiple-block area around the college: One murder, 22 robberies, 46 aggravated assaults, 57 burglaries and 63 drug arrests.

“It’s where we are,” Palmer spokeswoman Lori Leipold said last week. “We’re in an inner-city neighborhood.”

I tried several times to track down Rearick, partly to ask if there was a specific incident that compelled him to carry that gun to class. He never answered his door. But I noticed the graffiti on the giant garbage cans behind his apartment building and the broken beer bottles in the street.

And I got the idea.

While I can sympathize with Rearick, I think the college people did the right thing. Even if he had a permit to carry his .32, it doesn’t mean that Palmer is the place to carry it.

Maybe the college ought to have lockers on campus somewhere, so students can ditch their weapons before heading to class. I’m fairly serious.

I don’t like guns. But I accept that the law allows citizens to have them, and I especially understand Rearick’s desire to exercise that right.

This doesn’t mean I’d feel comfortable knowing the guy next to me in the Biomechanical Analysis of the Upper Extremity seminar was packing a loaded .32.

Lots of people like to argue that if more good guys carried guns, we’d have a better chance against the bad guys. But we don’t always know which is which. And good guys sometimes go bad.

As we well know, when that happens, it’s scarier than any neighborhood in Davenport.

Barb Ickes can be contacted at (563) 383-2316 or bickes@qctimes.com. Comment on this column at qctimes.com.