Opinions: Letters to the editor

 published on Thursday, February 28, 2008

Gun-related glory

(Both letters in response to Wednesday's article by Leigh Munsil titled "Amended gun bill passes committee")

Today is a glorious day. When I rolled out of bed this morning nothing seemed too great — just another day of notes and fighting to stay awake in class. However, this all changed when I read the paper this morning.

Upon reading that the gun bill was moved forward, I smiled and wondered how many letters to the editor would pour into the paper in protest, so I figured I should put my thoughts out there as well.

For those of you that opposed the gun bill, I have to ask you this: What are you so afraid of?

Let's be honest here. With the passing of this bill, your odds of getting shot by some random person has not gone up. Consequently, they have not gone down either. I'm sure there were plenty of people illegally carrying guns on campus before.

If some maniac decides to come and shoot up a school, do you really think that they care about the fact that it is "illegal" to bring a gun on campus? I didn't think so.

So, take your place along whatever side of the battle line you want, you have the right to your opinion. But when the day comes that someone carrying a gun legally saves your life, please be sure to thank him.

Michael Hansen
Undergraduate

Concealed carry would be the best safety change to happen to college campuses, and any campus for that matter. It isn't hard to stick a gun in your pocket and walk onto a campus. Jeanette Engle is only half right when she says, "If someone wants to carry a gun concealed on campus, they'll do it anyway."

For gang members, drug dealers, criminals and anyone that would be involved in a school shooting, this is correct. What isn't realized is that anyone that would go to the effort of applying for a concealed carry permit would be eligible to receive one, this is not the case.

These are law-abiding citizens, people that do what they are supposed to. These are the types of people that would protect all of us from mass shootings. Every school shooting was done with a gun that by law should not have been there. Every time the police were nowhere to be seen and in most cases didn't show up until after shooters had already shot themselves. They cannot react that fast to something like a school shooting; it is simply impossible.

In these instances, the only hope is for someone there to do something; this is also something that is impossible if everyone with the training and will to do something like that is unarmed.

In every state and city that concealed carry permits were permitted, crime has gone down drastically. Everywhere that outlawed guns, crime has gone up drastically. This is most evident in our nations capitol, the murder capital of the United States.

It should be evident that concealed carry will not harm our campus safety and if anything, greatly increase it.

Bret Reese
Undergraduate