In February, an altercation between two students at Middle Tennessee State University ended with a gunshot. The victim, 20-year-old Austin Morrow, was shot only in the hand — and is fine — but that hasn’t stopped pro-gun activists from invoking this fresh example of on-campus violence in support of their cause.
Conservative lawmakers have made recent moves in both Texas and Tennessee to loosen restrictions on guns on college campuses. In Texas, a bill is expected to pass this week that will allow students to carry guns on campus; the Tennessee bill, thankfully, thus far includes only university staff and faculty. But regardless, the idea of professors packing heat at school is only slightly less disconcerting than students being allowed to carry, and both states’ bills are fundamentally flawed.
At first glance, the pro-gun folks seem to have a point. Ever since Charles Whitman climbed to the top of the University of Texas’ clock-tower and gunned down 16 people nearly 45 years ago, controlling violent crime on college campuses has been a real and pressing issue. The oft-cited, more recent and equally disturbing example of campus violence occurred at Virginia Tech only four years ago, leaving over twice the number dead as Whitman’s massacre did.
It is true — one place where students should feel safest, universities, are too often not safe at all. But how to respond to this issue is a complex, difficult question. “More guns” is certainly not the answer.
The problem with guns is obvious: They kill people. And putting them in more hands within the college environment, even as a preventative measure against such atrocities as the Virginia Tech massacre, represents nothing less than a misguided overreaction.
Terrible things have happened on university campuses, and more will probably occur in the future. But these terrible things have happened, and will continue to happen, only occasionally. That is, unless, perhaps, we make it legal to carry guns on campus. Then they might happen more often.
Any member of the NRA will tell you: Guns don’t kill people; people kill people. That may be so. But still, a person with a gun is far more likely to kill someone than a person without a gun. And, sad as it is, statistically speaking, that person with a gun is far more likely to unintentionally harm or kill than he is to ever use his gun in self-defense.
Likewise, allowing guns onto college campuses is much more likely to lead to accidents than heroic vigilantism against campus shooters. The crime log would be a lot less funny if some of those “forcible fondlings” became “forcible fondling thwarted by gun.” Not that forcible fondlers don’t deserve to see justice; it’s just that an early death seems a little drastic.
As a rule, I feel safe at Vanderbilt. And although there’s always the chance of something out of the ordinary happening, like a tornado or — God forbid — a shooting, I believe that we are safe here. But if there were some unknown number of legally concealed guns on campus, then I would feel less safe and, I suspect, rightfully so.
As American citizens, we all have the right to bear arms. But at the end of the day, the right to go to class safe in the knowledge that your fellow students aren’t carrying weapons seems to me to outweigh the Second Amendment, if only temporarily, and for the purposes of maintaining a positive learning environment. Guns and learning don’t mix, and we’re here to learn; so let’s keep Vanderbilt — and, if possible, Texas and Tennessee’s other schools — gun-free.
—Matt Scarano is a freshman in the School of Engineering. He can be reached at .
