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Old West Spokane

On behalf of all those who don’t want to see Spokane return to its Old West heritage of violent gunplay in the streets, I want to express support for Gonzaga University’s decision to discipline Erik Fagan and Daniel McIntosh for having a shotgun and a Glock pistol on university-owned property. Weapons don’t belong on college property, and Fagan and McIntosh violated important university rules when they kept them in their apartment (ignorance of the rules, of course, is no excuse).

They aren’t being punished for defending themselves, they are being punished for violating common-sense rules. As a university professor myself, I want to feel secure in the knowledge that only campus security and police possess weapons.

As far as their run-in with a homeless man (irrelevant to the rule violations), Fagan and McIntosh have the burden of proof to show that they couldn’t have resolved the situation in any other way than to play at being Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson.

Kevin Decker

Spokane

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