No guns, more hugs

Throughout history, the people of this country have advocated their share of forward-thinking philosophies and moronic ideologies. For example, slavery was officially abolished in 1865, the same year the Ku Klux Klan was formed by veterans of the Confederate Army.

Unfortunately, the recent Fort Hood shooting has provoked one of the nation’s more preposterously asinine causes to resurface: guns on college campuses.

Presently, the state of Indiana does not explicitly prohibit carrying guns on campus, and groups like Students for Concealed Carry on Campus believe the privileges provided in state-issued concealed-handgun licenses should extend to college campuses nationwide.

This is another instance of fear displacing rationality, where a quick-fix idea attempts to preemptively solve a problem by narrow-mindedly focusing on only one infrequent scenario. In this scenario, a psychopathic campus shooter is heroically gunned down by an armed student before too much damage can be inflicted.

While the dangers of campus shootings are certainly very real, I believe the proponents of these gun laws have willingly blinded themselves to the much more relevant dangers these newfound freedoms might cultivate. 

It must be understood that a college campus is a special habitat. Hormones rampage, academic demands loom and substances beckon. The life of an average college student is saturated with flash life lessons, and our judgment is preyed upon by the ravenous forces of youthful provocation. So, as much as I appreciate the freedoms these pro-gun groups graciously want to provide for me, I really don’t want a 20-something binge drinker in Uggs carrying a loaded weapon to my astronomy class.
Let’s look at some statistics. Around 1,500 college students between the ages of 18-24 die every year from alcohol-related injuries. Ten percent of college students have been diagnosed with clinical depression. One out of four women are sexually assaulted on a college campus.

These numbers reveal the potential danger college students face; therefore, this guns-on-campus     ideology is like tossing spray-paint cans into a bonfire. Sure, a good-natured student who is packing heat might successfully ward off a would-be rapist, but a coked-out student who is packing heat might go ballistic after losing a beer pong game to his ex’s new boyfriend.

But unstable adolescents aren’t the sole reason I oppose this cause. The solution that groups like SCCC propose is akin to buying monster trucks to combat drunk driving. Instead of treating the problem at its source, like perhaps cracking down on gun rights, these groups want to encourage a militia of armed and waiting students. They want to attack the effects, not the cause.

College campuses are one of the last remaining safe zones yet to be fully conquered by the pro-gun lobbying groups. Some may argue that gun laws should be the same everywhere, but as long as this last vestige of gun-free territory survives, we should fight for it.

Bullets flying from one direction are bad enough; do we really need them coming from both?