by John Asgeirson

Created on: April 15, 2008

Colleges have rights. People have rights. Victims have rights.

In an institution of higher learning or in public education I am puzzled what benefit a student would have be exercising their right to have a firearm on campus. Yet this is an issue of gun control which is something that is legislated federally, on the state level and locally.

Colleges have the right to establish codes of behavior for enrollment on their campuses. I think they should have the right and the duty to restrict firearms on campus. If students feel that the issue of having firearms on campus is of sufficient importance they can look for a campus that allows guns.

What happened at Virginia Tech or the University of Texas were tragedies of the first order but happened because of mental illness.

It has been said by some that if people had been allowed to carry firearms on campus the tragedies would have been minimized because someone would have been able to defend themselves against an attacker or the attacker would have been reluctant to take such extreme actions.

The ownership of guns in this country is part of our constitution and part of our tradition as a country. As such, we probably overemphasize the romantic nature of the gun to maintain our freedom as a people. I'm sure that the opposing point of view is just as compelling because too many of the wrong people are able to get guns and too often those people because they are able to get guns use those guns to kill people. The NRA says guns don't kill people, people kill people. People with guns kill people or themselves. We have come to believe in the culture of violence and because of that belief this issue will continue to haunt us.

Colleges are special places. Places to learn, experiment, and live in a manner that is truely different than just about any other place or time. They are also places where there is a great deal of stress and pressure and other issues regarding life. College students are not always at their most mature or best behavior and yet supervision which may be needed may not be available. College official are obliged to act as parents because the student's parents are not on campus. Drinking, driving, sexually transmitted diseases, and all sorts of other problems can happen to young adults. I believe having a gun in a desk drawer is of any help and might add to issues students face.

States, the Federal government, parents, foundations,and the students all have an interest in providing a safe place to study, and colleges should be able to ban firearms on campus if it believes its students will be safer. There is no perfect guarantee of safety but keeping guns off campus should help make the place safer.

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