Editor:

In his letter (“Chronicle’s leftist agenda on display with gun coverage,” Sept. 12), Kellen Wilson seems to believe that anyone who opposes guns on campus is a liberal. Given Wilson’s logic, BYU President Merrill Bateman is a liberal.

In the July 3, 2002, edition of The Chronicle, Jake Parkinson reported that Bateman had filed an affidavit in support of the U’s gun ban (“BYU president backs Machen’s no-gun policy”).

Parkinson provided a direct quote from Bateman: “I am aware of no situation or incident that has occurred on BYU’s campus that could have been alleviated by the intervention of citizens armed with concealed weapons. On the other hand, there have been situations where the presence of firearms, even in the hands of law-abiding citizens, would have complicated, escalated and ultimately aggravated the situation or conflict.”

Wilson should be very worried, because BYU currently bans concealed weapons on its campus. If you follow Wilson’s logic that everyone who opposes concealed weapons on campus is a liberal, we must conclude that Bateman, who is also a member of the LDS Church’s First Quorum of the Seventy, is a liberal. It therefore appears that BYU is a liberal institution, according to Wilson’s logic.

Perhaps Wilson should transfer to BYU to help save its student body and its president from liberal agendas.

Jeff Hullinger

Staff Marriott Library