Saturday, November 19, 2022

The University of Virginia Threat Assessment Team needs to have a campus wide background check for everyone.

Currently, the University of Virginia requires background checks on their employees.

Who Is Covered by this Policy:Classified and University staff;

Faculty, including visiting scholars and visiting faculty;
Medical Center employees;
Professional research staff, including post-doctoral research associates;
Non-employee post-doctoral fellows;
Wage employees, including staff, faculty, and professional research staff;
UVA Temps; and...

There is an enormous gap in this policy. Why?

...UVA students whose employment/academic work, or internships/practica through the University will involve providing clinical services to, direct supervision of minors who are not enrolled as students at UVA, or will require access to Controlled Unclassified Information subject to NIST SP 800-171 safeguarding requirements.

I believe I ready that Lavel Davis Jr. was a medical student. He underwent a background check because a medical student will ultimately be licensed. Anyone with convictions may not be admitted for a licensing exam. The requirements for the professions such as medicine and law are fairly strict when it comes to a state license to practice in most states. There are ethical issues when dealing the a physician that is ultimately responsible for another person's life regardless of the specialty practiced.

Below is the background check required for the U of Va School of Medicine.

All admitted students (click here) must undergo an AMCAS facilitated criminal background check, in which searches will be conducted by social security number, by areas of prior residence (on county-wide, state-wide and national levels), and by sex offender databases. The check will seek conviction information for all criminal felonies and misdemeanors committed as an adult, as well as for all unresolved offenses and arrests.

The criminal background check will not encompass offenses committed as a juvenile, with the exception of those offenses for which the juvenile was deemed an adult.

Enrollment at the School of Medicine at the University of Virginia is conditional upon the results of the criminal background check. The School of Medicine reserves the right to revoke an offer of admission based upon information received through the criminal background check. An applicant with criminal convictions listed in Virginia Code Section 37.2-314 typically shall be barred from matriculating at the School of Medicine. However, for all criminal convictions, consideration will be given to the nature and seriousness of the offense; the age of the person when the offense was committed; whether the offense was an isolated incident or part of a habitual, repetitive pattern; and the length of time that has elapsed since the offense was committed. Serious deliberation will be conducted as to whether the offense(s) may indicate a future jeopardy to patient care and well-being....

The University of Virginia does not allow guns on campus. Period. Not even if a person has a permit for guns. It is the correct policy for a university campus. Without a doubt.

See, I have a concealed carry permit. I own a handgun. The reasons are not important. I can handle the gun competently, but, in all honesty I should practice more and maybe even compete in order to feel as though the gun has a purpose greater than killing in self-defense. 

I am not an expert, but, most Americans that own and conceal carry handguns are not experts either. Most Americans that own guns and have permits to carry them won't carry them or use them anyway. A gun is a hazard in anyone's life that carries. The gun can be turned on the owner, too. It isn't easy pulling that trigger when the target is an actual human being. The responsibility in doing so is enormous and many that have killed face charges regardless of the permit or the fact the killing was justified from the point of self-defense or defense of the owner's home with or without family inside.

Every gun association and/or club advocates for subscribing to it to ensure there are lawyers waiting to defend it's members. There is also some discussions about mandatory addition of a gun liability policy to home insurance policies. Some say the gun owns you and you don't own the gun. That seems like a true reality. An owner has to be aware of the gun and whether it is safely stowed or reasonably safe while carrying. There is no absolute safety with concealed carry, but, that is another discussion.

The fact the University of Virginia will receive complaints about their policy by the NRA and who knows who else, there is a reality that cannot be ignored, this incident could have been avoided if the school conducted it's background check for all students. The murderer was on the bus when he should not have been. 

Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. had failed a background check at a gun shop 

...On Wednesday, (click here) a gun shop owner said Jones had twice tried to buy a gun – once failing a background check – before buying a handgun and a rifle in separate purchases this year....

Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. was holding on to tightly and when the investigation began he didn't see his life taking the path a college education were to bring him. He never saw a different path or a way to mitigate the damages of a misdemeanor conviction. He only saw his life failing no matter what he tried and his anger manifested in vengeful actions to those members of the student body that did not face his hurdles to success.

It has nothing to do with popularity or grade point averages. Jones failed to see his life successful when the investigation found his misdemeanor.

The University needs to close the loophole of gun ownership and possession on campus. It also needs to first enroll a student in a counseling session before an investigation is begun to allow the student to see himself or herself as successful regardless of their status on campus. There have to be alternatives to a college education in any student's life, but, especially when there are issues of legal principles involved. Family involvement seems an answer, but, Jones is 22 years old and hardly a teenager as some college students are at 17, 18 or 19. 

I am so sorry to see this happen at U of Va. I do not know any of these people. What is written here is an opinion based on facts that I found. This is still yet another tragedy in the USA because of the free flow of weapons that is completely legal. The idea of owning a gun and then carrying it concealed is a huge responsibility that should not be taken lightly nor for political reasons. Weapons should never be politicized.

Stating there are other weapons, such as a hammer, that can be just as dangerous as a gun. That simply is not true. Other weapons besides guns cause injury and death, but, the statistics speak for themselves; gun deaths in the USA outnumber by 10 to 1 of stabbing deaths (click here).

We have to end gun violence. There are too many guns on the streets of the USA.