A recent letter to the editor in my campus paper read as:
Gun advocates conveniently sidestep the subject of experience as well. The claim is that armed students could have gunned down Cho Seung-Hui before his rampage claimed the lives of many students and faculty.
However, I challenge gun advocates to predict the outcome of any given violent situation. It seems much more likely that the tension and anxiety of such a predicament would lead to additional harm if more shooters were introduced.
What if the tragedy at Virginia Tech evolved into a gun-battle with a madman on one side and students on the other?
As a student at UTSA, I can firmly say that if students are allowed to carry guns onto campus, I will feel much more unsafe. We should not allow ourselves to submit to the fear of another campus shooting and react by arming the populous.
The only responsible way to respond to such tragedies is with solidarity: do not allow the campus to become a breeding ground for gun violence.
But that letter got a great response from Allison Aldrich, a junior at Virginia Tech, and fellow conservative activist:
That is wonderful that you don’t trust a student with a firearm to defuse a treacherous scene. Who, then, DO you trust?
Do you trust the police? Because I personally saw the police scrambling around on my campus after the first shootings with no idea where the shooter was headed.
With police response times as they are (and that is in no way their fault) people are ultimately responsible for their own security. I would rather be armed and ready to protect myself, even if it does make people like you a little squeamish to see someone with a gun.
And your idea that the only responsible way to respond to such tragedies is with “solidarity” is about the most absurd claim in your entire article.
What would you have campuses do? Join hands and sing Kumbaya?
There is no way to make 100 percent of the people feel welcome and loved 100 percent of the time. And even if you could, you aren’t accounting for the mentally deranged people who will not respond to you no matter how many hugs you give them.
Hopefully schools like Virginia Tech and UTSA soon realize that instead of protecting students with these kinds of policies, they are taking away the right we have to protect ourselves.
Until then, just remember when you’re deciding what life-threatening policies to follow, it is better to be judged by twelve than carried by six.
