by Megan Risley

Created on: March 02, 2009

You mean they're not already? Maybe this is just the "Littleton-Colorado" talking in me, but are you kidding? If you've heard of this little suburb of Denver in Colorado, the only reason is probably the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School, then (unfortunately not anymore) the worse school shooting in American History. I was 13 and ten minutes away. My best friend lost four close friends. Parents lost their children. Children lost their lives. At. School. We can't make the argument that that was "just" stupid high school kids - can anyone say Virginia Tech - the deadliest on US soil (where it's possible that the shooter was a student)? Or NIU, where the perpetrator was 27 years old? And now we're actually asking the question if guns should be legally permitted on campus? As if allowing more guns will somehow protect us from the "crazies" and "nut jobs" (even if only "crazies" and "nut jobs" go on shooting rampages)? I'm actually offended...

I understand that the "right to life" part of the American "rules" could in some way suggest that we have a right to protect this life, but I think going as far as to say that college kids (yes, we are KIDS) have a RIGHT to carry guns is twisting the intention of the Constitution. We have the right to life, not the right to take that of another, so I'm not sure where all this talk of "self-defense" and "protection" fits in. We do not have the right to take another's life, and that's what guns do best.

Campus carry really seems only to encourage and sow into a culture of fear, as if anyone and everyone is now a potential enemy against which one must be prepared. I don't know about you, but I would find it really hard to approach someone with a gun around their waist, even if it was in the efforts of friendship. People carrying around guns, even if there were such a thing as an "understandable" reason, has a strong potential for heightening the anxiety levels of college campuses (which are, in my opinion already way too high), and will only facilitate isolation born of the suspicion and fear of one another, rather than the much-needed community all college students need. We don't need protection from each other as much as we need love and community; I can't see a way guns provide this at all, even - no, especially - if everyone has one.

Life is not safe, but guns do not make it safer. There is no guarantee that the most "qualified" and responsible gun owner will stay that way. There isn't even a guarantee that a gun will not go off on accident. I know that guns do not kill people, but people do. And guns make it a lot easier. It doesn't seem to reflect the sanctity and delicacy of life to permit the carrying of firearms on college campuses, it seems to disrespect that entirely, while at the same time fotsering the mindset that your life is more important than anyone else's since you, when carrying a gun, have the power to take it...

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