Students don’t need guns
Florida lawmakers are again pushing the notion that concealed weapons have a place on college campuses, right along with backpacks, iPads and condoms.
The logic goes something like this: College campuses are prime targets for mass shooters and angry, mentally ill people who are able to get their hands on a gun. The attack at Umpqua Community College in Oregon is the latest example. And there are not enough police on or near college campuses to thwart the threat. So, campuses will be safer should college students have access to their own weapons.
When was the last time a lawmaker went to college? Not to give a speech, but to attend classes, eat a meal and live in a dorm. College life is rife with immaturity. Many college students see campus life like high school without the supervision. For them, it’s time to get wild and crazy and drunk. Sure, that is painting college life with a broad brush. But, c’mon, colleges have not changed much since the days of “Animal House.” Google it.
But back to the point, that armed college students — should they not be drunk or psychotic from lack of sleep or fear of flunking — are in the best position to defend themselves, as well as others, in the face of a gunman with no cop in sight.
There are too many ways such a scenario goes sideways to list here. So, here are the Top 5:
5. Most parents don’t trust their college-bound sons or daughters with a credit card, why would they trust them with a Glock?
4. It takes police officers and soldiers years to learn to use a weapon properly, let alone in the face of an armed confrontation. Why would a college student still learning basic English and math be able to handle such a situation?
3. An armed attack is nothing like a video game. A student may think zapping zombies on a TV screen is much like stopping an armed threat.
2. College life is stressful. Roommates fight over rent. Students get enraged when a professor doles out a much-deserved D for essays that would not pass English Lit in middle school. These situations become infinitely more dangerous when a gun is nearby.
1. College women have enough trouble fending off college men who try to get them drunk, down a roofie or give into relentless harassment for the purpose of casual sex. Now we are going to give the Big Man on Campus a firearm?
The right to own a gun is an American standard. But all rights must be granted within reason. And the contention that most gun owners are responsible holds little water — or beer — when you are talking about wild, stressed and sexually active college students.