Increasing safety in the residence halls was the reasoning behind the Inter-Residence Hall Association’s landslide vote to support the Department of Public Safety’s bid to carry tasers.

IRHA passed the parliament order “Tasers for DPS Law Enforcement is a good thing” 21-1 at its Nov. 29 meeting.

Greg Taylor, Helser Hall representative, cast the one dissenting vote. “I support this, but my floors don’t,” he said at the meeting. “They were worried about safety, like poking someone’s eye out.”

TRA President Keith Twombley, co-sponsor of the bill, said tasers will increase safety for residence hall students. “Right now, DPS has three main tools to deal with violent people,” he said. “They have their voice, pepper spray and a baton. If DPS can’t subdue a violent person with these tools alone, then they can hardly protect us.”

Dave Breutzman, co-sponsor of the bill, said the tasers would be a precautionary measure.

“Tasers, or other such weapons, are the kinds of things where you don’t need them until you need them,” said Breutzman, TRA at-large. “I don’t want to have to get someone hurt to justify the tasers.”

Breutzman is unsure what DPS will ultimately decide about tasers.

“With IRHA and GSB strongly supporting the issue, and Faculty Senate weakly against it, the issue of tasers has a good chance of being resolved with DPS Law Enforcement officers carrying tasers,” he said. “That is, however, by no means a certainty; we’ll just have to wait and see.”

Twombley said he thinks tasers are a step in the right direction. “Honestly, I’d like to see DPS armed with firearms,” he said. “Even with a taser, DPS officers are not equipped to deal with a suspect who has a gun.”

The last IRHA meeting for the semester will begin at 7 p.m. today in the Pioneer Room of the Memorial Union.