<p>Guns on campus are ridiculous.</p>
<p>1) Imagine you are a student in a class with a gun. Where do you think you’re probably going to keep the gun? On the desk in front of you? Not likely. It’s probably at the bottom of your bookbag. What’s the likelihood that you’ll get to it in time after a guy burst into your classroom firing?</p>
<p>2) Having 20 people shooting in a classroom is not really safer than having one person shooting. Ricochets, crossfire - all adds up to a very bad situation.</p>
<p>3) As a police officer said, in regards to this idea, when the police come, how do they know who’s the “bad guy”? The officers will likely shoot anyone with a gun that won’t immediately put it down. With the noise of a gun battle and the resulting adrenaline, “innocent” kids are going to be shot by the police.</p>
<p>4) College kids don’t always have the most mature attitude when dealing with crises in general. What happens when Student finds his girlfriend is cheating on him, or he’s about to flunk out, etc.? When the gun is just sitting there, there’s a much higher likelihood that he may do something he regrets. Will it be common? No. But neither are current shootouts on campus.</p>
<p>5) This makes it tougher to attract good faculty to the school. I can tell you, as a future professor, that I would never teach at a school that allows students to carry guns. And, in having this discussion with other professors, I am not alone. It’s bad enough to have to fight with students about grades, papers, etc. and face the tenure clock. I don’t want to hand out F papers to students that may be packin’. The F students aren’t usually the most mature students with excellent decision-making skills.</p>
<p>BTW, I think it’s funny that there’s a word for fear of guns. There’s a legitimate reason why a person would be a little nervous with a gun sitting a few feet away. I didn’t know most of my classmates well enough to trust them, so why should I feel comfortable that they have a loaded handgun they can use at any time? I don’t think it’s unreasonable to be wary of a tool that can kill you - whose only purpose, in fact, is to hurt and kill, and can do it at a pretty extensive range.</p>