Editor:
Students attend the U for an education, but most don’t even bother to educate themselves about guns, gun control, concealed weapon permits, or the gun debate before foaming at the mouth in anti-Second Amendment rhetoric. So it’s time for an education.
Contemplating potential negative impacts of guns on campus can cause a knee-jerk reaction, in both pro- and anti gun supporters. But let’s examine this issue critically, objectively, without the swaying effects of emotion and drama. If someone wanted to bring a gun on campus to commit murder, what’s stopping them? If a person wanted to pull a Columbine?God forbid?how and why would a law prohibiting concealed weapons on campus stop her or him from committing this horrifying, terrible act? It simply wouldn’t.
The vast majority of U students are opposed to allowing those people on campus who have legally obtained their guns and concealed weapon permits. These concealed weapon permit holders are the same people who went through FBI background checks, who took the requisite classroom course and who submitted fingerprints to the government, all for the ability to legally possess a gun on public property, of which the U campus is included. Yet the fear remains that these same law-abiding students “will stand up in my philosophy class and shoot me if I say something they don’t like.” Yes, I’ve really heard that as a reason to not honor concealed weapon permits on campus.
Clearly, the fear?the phobia?of honoring concealed weapon permits on campus is an irrational fear that too many students and officials at this university possess.
Charles L. Perschon, Senior, Psychology