My R.A. is a member (and former president) of Shepherd's Active Gaming Club. For those of you unfamiliar with the Active Gaming Club, they are the group that runs (among other things) Shepherd's Humans VS. Zombies games. For those of you unfamilliar with Humans VS. Zombies (or HVZ as it is known amongst players), it is a campus wide NERF war that simulates a zombie apocalypse. I've played before, and it's quite a blast! Here at Shepherd the police department is totally alright with HVZ (so long as they are notified of game dates and follow some very basic and easy to follow rules). Other schools are not so lucky.
I was talking to my R.A. about HVZ and some how we got on the topic of HVS at other schools. He said that at some schools the campus police have all but banned the game. He then said that at UMD they had been compared to ISIS. I couldn't believe it. He must have heard some details wrong! Well...he didn't. The club president from UMD's Nerf Activity Society (or NAS) had forwarded my R.A. the email from the UMD Police Department, which he forwarded to me, an lo and behold
"The growing threats presented by groups such as ISIS demonstrate the reality of the domestic environment, and we constantly monitor those threats in order to keep the community safe. Balancing these concerns with the student group’s desire to have safe events requires that UMPD carefully considers the risk in this environment. The opportunity for accidental tragedy at an outdoor NAS event is too great"So yes, at the University of Maryland college kids running around with NERF guns could be mistaken for a terrorist attack. What do you guys think of this? Are the UMD Police's concerns valid? I've been apart of one of these games and I've never felt threatened.
*Update 3-4-15 5:07PM
I just wanted to clarify one thing. I am not trying to make light of ISIS, or any other terrorist organization. I understand that they pose a very real threat to our safety, I just fail to see the connection between these groups and NERF games.
Ridiculous, would be the most common word. You seem very passionate about this and in turn, I feel no threat to the idea of pretend warfare. As far as, the state that holds our nations capital, they can only determine that being divided by their communities' views and nation cannot happen. But for an instance, they managed to legalize marijuana, just in D.C.. A loop hole was there reason.
ReplyDeleteNERF seems like kids fun and we grow into adults missing the aim and you got hit, your out.
I am not worried about the people that chose to play war games. I am worried more when I think about how we might be unprepared.
Aw, that's awful that kids games could be taken as a terrorist threat. That definitely seems like reaching to me. I know you don't condone ISIS, and no one playing a nerf game should feel like they are either. So long as the campus is notified of the activities ahead of time, I don't see the harm in it. I really liked this post, Austin! It's crazy how things relate. I never would've thought ISIS would come in to play with nerf guns.
ReplyDeleteOk, this is stupied.
ReplyDeleteI promise you , when a violent event goes down, you can tell what is what. I promise you sir, this whole nerf gun thing is another excuse for Maryland being the most gun nazi state in America. If they could they would outlaw nerf guns. Back to the point at hand. I would ask that LEO if you cant tell the difference between kids being kids and a terrorist attack , you good sir need to be retrained.
I think the fact that a school banned a NERF game is really stupid. It is obvious that these "guns" that people are running around with are fake, and shoot Styrofoam. This is what drives me crazy about our society we live in, people have become over sensitive to EVERYTHING.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting debate. I will admit to seeing (sort of) both sides of this issue (not the ISIS stuff, though). People are anxious these days about violence, especially on college campuses, and the idea of people running around/chasing each other with gun-like objects *can* be scary. Like Austin says, the game goes on here at Shepherd, but it wasn't always uncontroversial. Some faculty really pushed back and thus, the game is much more regulated now.
ReplyDeleteOn a related note, I think there are lots of paper ideas that could come from this topic (HVZ).