Editor:
Have you seen the movie the “Grand Budapest Hotel”? There is a scene in which there are soldiers chasing wanted men through the halls of a hotel.
In all the rooms are quartered soldiers — the main characters are cornered, and someone fires their gun. Suddenly, a solider emerges from his room, scanning the hall searching for where the shot rang from, and begins shooting.
Another solider peeks his head out and emerges into the hall shooting. And another, and another. In the chaos and confusion, there is a massive shootout.
This is what I see in my mind’s eye when I image a college or university allowing firearms onto campus.
In a previous editorial “Concealed guns good idea for emergencies” (April 6), an unnamed author claims that armed students ultimately means a safer campus because the bill passed by the Texas Senate allowing licensed concealed weapons won’t keep deranged shooters from going on a mass killing spree, but it will enable good ol’ boys licensed to carry, to be heroes and to take a shooter down.
The author of the editorial even acknowledges Homeland Security’s advice of acting aggressively toward a shooter as a “last resort” yet somehow seems to overlook the act of firing a gun as an aggressive act.
Another scenario to consider is, like in the above-mentioned scene from the “Grand Budapest Hotel,” if a gunshot is heard, someone else with a gun will come out to find out what’s going on.
Imagine if there were even only three other gun carriers in a single wing or hall; if they all came out, there are now a total of four guns in a hall, none knowing what is going on, on edge, and ready to shoot.
With no real way to communicate with each other, or to know the situation, the danger level rises immensely.
The potential cons far outweigh the potential benefits of allowing students to carry guns onto campus.
I do not feel safe knowing that come next fall semester I could be sitting next to another student packing heat.
Every other student that I’ve talked to about it feels the same exact way. I will not feel safer knowing that somewhere in my classroom some trigger-happy carrier is just itching to play hero.
Amanda Hernandez
Liberal arts sophomore
1 Comment
This is one of the most intelligent arguments yet published in regard to firearms on campus. We hire competent trained officers to patrol the campus and deal with these types of emergencies which, although they are widely reported in the media are actually very rare in comparison to the number of students attending classes at all college and university campuses nation wide. Let’s not cave to those who want to protect their non-existent right to sell guns.