In Crises and Leviathan, Robert Higgs argues that times of crises are breeding grounds for the expansion of state power and authority. During the great depression, during times of warfare, during natural catastrophes, etc. citizens are desperate for solutions and the state is more than willing to offer proposals. Policy changes are drafted quickly with less attention to their long term consequences, and the public is more willing to accept them because “something has to be done — anything.”
Just a few days ago Andrew Meyer attended a lecture by John Kerry at the University of Florida. After being obnoxious and refusing to leave, several police officers restrained Meyer and tasered him several times.

This has caused quite a news splash, but amidst the litany of comments, I have yet to come across anyone mentioning that college campuses are on heightened alert ever since the Virginia Tech massacre.
In the first weeks of my semester, I can remember several long emails from our campus authorities describing additional standards and protocols that were being taken to “ensure our safety.” Maybe I was cynical but when I read the notice I thought it was mostly lip service — the illusion of security. Campuses weren’t repealing their gun control policies, instead they were telling students how to report possible threats. I assume that campus security officers were probably told, “better to be safe than sorry?” I’d bet they were instructed to take more intensive action at earlier stages because who knows what could happen otherwise. I’m not necessarily saying that these additions are bad, but they feel like they lack a real link to deterring actual acts of violence. They seem more aimed at making students feel safer, rather than actually making them safer.
As time has passed we forget how scared and helpless the VT event made us feel and the brief solace that those extra precautions gave us. But now we want to get back to using our universities for their intended purposes of discussion and debate. Those additional policies and precautions remain, and in some instances may conflict with the greater purposes of the institutions that they are designed to protect. The campus security officers don’t suddenly forget the techniques that they were taught to use. Every event gets treated as a potentially serious altercation.