A major isue today is whether or not firearms should be permitted on college campuses .College shootings are nothing new these days. Some of the most well known and tragic shooting are Columbine, Virginia Tech and most recently Northern Illinois University. How do we prevent more shootings from happening? One of the biggest debates today is whether or not guns should be allowed on campus. Can or could we have prevented any deaths if students had taken things into their own hands? Or would having guns create more violence?
I am a student at Arizona State University and I do not think that guns should be permitted on campus. I think it would make things worse and I would feel much more unsafe on a regular basis. I among many others did not grow up with guns and even being around them makes me extremely uncomfterable. I think people especially students can have poor judgments, especially in the heat of a moment situation. Moreover, students are more likely to panic is any situation with guns present. I think that there are other ways to increase security on campus without involving weapons that create violence in the first place.
Firearms on Campus
By smpalumb - Posted on March 14th, 2008
Tagged: Personal freedom
I really don't think guns should be on campus. There are other alternatives to protecting yourself as pepper spray, etc... I agree that people can get caught up in the moment and lose control. It is a life a death situation when a gun is used. That is only my opinion for schools. Great Post.
I think that guns should not be permitted, but I think therapy should be a mandatory institution at all universities or colleges for at least 5 sessions when a person begans school. This way when stuff gets hard and they have the knowledge that there is someone on the campus they can talk to, they will go there instead of killing people. Also I think that it will help identity students who have the potential for mental illness that may push them over the edge and into a killing spree. Unfortunately it would make the legal ethics of counselors/therapists so much harder.
I'd like to direct you to lancekates' blogs, particularly the score of reasons for allowing gun owners to carry, even in schools. He has worked very hard to dispel the myths about firearms and gun owners and I think he's done a good job with it.
Can or could we have prevented any deaths if students had taken things into their own hands?
While I don't think having guns would have prevents any deaths, I believe it would have prevented most of the deaths (assume roughly 2 deaths - shooter's first victim and shooter, since deadly force is unnecessary until deadly force is used), though there is a decent chance that all deaths can be prevented because the shooter is deterred by an armed would-have-been victim.
Or would having guns create more violence?
There has never been any evidence that more firearms in the hands of responsible gun owners creates more violence. In fact, there is overwhelming evidence that it reduces violence.
The issue lies in the very ignorance of firearms as a tool that you (the original author) and the subsequent commenters display. Firearms are dangerous, yes, but so are kitchen knives and ovens. When treated as the tools that they are, and respected in the same way one respects the power and danger of a sharp butcher knife or hot oven, then they are nowhere near as scary.
It is a life a death situation when a gun is used.
When trained properly, the use of one's hands becomes a life or death situation. When trained properly (as most responsible gun owners are), guns can save more lives than they take.
I agree that people can get caught up in the moment and lose control.
Again, it comes down to training. A third degree black belt can kill a person with their bare hands. However, they are trained to avoid physical violence except as a last resort. Gun owners are trained the same way.
I among many others did not grow up with guns and even being around them makes me extremely uncomfterable.
Being around them and learning the truth about them, instead of the propaganda you've most likely been told, is the only way you'll ever not live in fear of them. Instead, you can learn to respect them.
"Guns don't kill people. People kill people."
that rather than guns people kill and although yes good points were made one it begs the question: How do we expect individuals, trained or untrained, to handle weapons if they are not trained to handle and cope with their own daily lives?
We have this impression,maybe it is the media or maybe it is our own fears of being that person, that the individuals who decided to commit both homicide and suicide did these actions at a moments notice, when we really have to admit that they didn't. They thought about these things. They planned these things. For many moments of everyday they refused or may just have justified their reasons for not getting the help they needed. If our universities, our media, ourselves remove the stigma attached to mental health treatment- many of those lives could have been saved.
The vast, vast majority of the time, the ones doing the shooting did not legally own the gun(s) they were carrying.
For the last time it's not the legal gun owners that are the problem!
-- quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
None of the people who do those massacres in schools are allowed to have the guns.
I... ugh. Just read Lancekates stuff.
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You are the Voice of the Childwen of the Revowution! [Toulouse, Moulin Rouge]