'We will never use them': the California universities stockpiling AR-15s, grenades and submachine guns

[erronis]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/09/california-universities-military-equipment

A 2021 state law allows campus police to own military equipment for civilian safety -- students fear it may be used to quash dissent

For many public colleges and universities in California, keeping their campuses safe includes owning military-grade weaponry: AR-15s, stun grenades designed to cause temporary blindness and sonic weapons that resonate so loudly they are known in the armed forces as the voice of God.

According to California state law, campus police can only own military equipment if the college believes there is no other way to uphold civilian safety.

That law, which passed in 2021, also requires police to make all their equipment dealings exceedingly clear to the public. However, not every college follows every part of the law, according to an investigation by CalMatters into all 148 public campuses in the California Community Colleges, University of California and California State University systems.

Each campus's state or district governing board - which gives permission for police to procure such items - has to annually re-approve a use policy, a chronicle of when the equipment has been used and an inventory. Once the report is approved and published online, campus police have 30 days to hold a conveniently located and "well-publicized" forum for the public to learn about and give feedback on the equipment, according to state law.

. . .

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Universities, the great bastions of education in a peaceful retreat from the secular world

If they don't accept our teachings, maybe we can enforce their thoughts with guns, grenades, and flash-bangs.

[erronis]

3. From my limited time ini those hallowed halls, I found the "administration" more interested in order

than education. I have to admit that being some old grey-hairs confronted by a bunch of hormone and drug fanatics can be scary. Call out the troops!

(Univ. of Kansas 66-68, later Berkeley)

[Rob H.]

2. I don't find them saying, "We will never use them" comforting in the least

Maybe that's just me.

[erronis]

4. Words spoken at Kent State

and students killed at the University of Kansas by Nat'l Guard (1970)

[peggysue2]

5. Exactly

If you're never going to use the weapons why have them?

Universities and stocked arsenals simply doesn't compute, IMHO.

[Mordred]

6. It's cover

for the real reason of stockpiling to hand out when the State has to fight off the MAGA Fed Govt.