Not for the first time, level-headed professors at Arkansas's colleges and universities have saved their students from a mad plot by legislative extremists. "They're so ideological and irrational," a philosophy professor at Fayetteville says of the legislators. "We have to be constantly on guard, even the football coaches."
The lawmakers' latest scheme was to flood the campuses with weaponry, strapping concealed handguns on faculty and staff. A law to achieve this reckless end became effective this month. But the institutions of higher learning took advantage of a provision of the law that allowed them to opt out. They had opposed the bill before this provision was added.
So the academics at the colleges and universities will once again be packing good judgment, but not firearms, in the new school year. If only the same could be said of the legislators. Possibly the professors could conduct workshops on Legislative Weekend, exposing the legislators to reason and common sense. It's said that it's never too late to learn.