Pedersen

Imagine you are sitting in Brighton Lecture Hall in your Intimate Relationships class listening to the class discussion. The discussion has turned into more of a group-based argument and people are yelling at each other, so you have zoned out to avoid it.

Suddenly the fight escalates into enraged shouting and before you can even look up, you hear a gunshot. Then screams and more gunshots.

“He’s got a gun, shoot the bastard!” “Get ‘em! Shoot to kill!”

You duck underneath a desk and see bullets flying from all directions, wood splintering and blood spattering around you. You have no idea who is shooting where, so you put your head between your legs and pray.

Then, just as suddenly as it began, it’s over. The blasts have ended and the screaming slowly subsides. You realize that the people with guns have run out of the classroom. The firefight has spread.

Later, you learn that the gunman had a history of violence and that eight other students armed with guns chased after and killed the lone student gunman. Including the class you were in and the following path of devastation, 32 students were killed and 58 injured.

Although such a situation may seem ridiculous at such a peaceful school like Emporia State, I imagine the students at Virginia Tech were under the same impression.

The truth is that school shootings can and do happen, but if we welcome guns onto campuses, students will inevitably bring guns and whether their intentions be noble or not, this influx of firearms will cause school shootings to become more violent.

It may seem like a moot point to bring this up at ESU, but it wasn’t that long ago that I remember a Conceal and Carry RSO nearly starting up here.

More recently, seven states, including our neighbors Oklahoma and Nebraska, are considering legislation that would allow for looser gun control laws on campuses and it’s not terribly unlikely to consider it happening here in Kansas.

The only answer to gun legislation is to lessen the number of guns around, not to increase them. This is certainly true for a campus and the same could be said on a national level.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, America has the highest rate of gun-related deaths among the world’s 36 richest nations and, according to a Small Arms Survey from 2007, the U.S. had the highest rate of private gun ownership with 90 firearms per 100 people.

The main argument against gun control on campus is that if the students can be armed, they could protect other students, but I say that they will simply cause more damage. I highly doubt those students would be expert marksmen, bullets tend to go astray.

It is a ridiculous notion to think that increasing the number of students carrying guns would lower the amount of violence on campus, just as it is ridiculous to think that the number of torches in a wooden house would lessen the chance for fire.

Simple logic tells us that more guns means more gun-related deaths, and I think we should keep that number at zero.

Alex Pedersen/The Bulletin