Translate
By Victor Seguin
Image via Flickr
Texas recently became the eighth state in the nation to allow university and community college students to carry firearms on campus. This made me think, what it would be like if this same law were to pass here in California. Would life change for students? Would they feel safer? Would there be fewer school shootings?
I don’t think so.
California has seen more school shootings – 16 since 1990 – than any other state. The most recent, in June, involved the shooting death of a UCLA professor by a former student.
If you allow students to carry firearms onto a college campus you are setting people up for harm. The college environment is filled with stress, alcohol, and peer pressure, and if you add easy access to firearms it becomes a ticking time bomb ready to explode. There is also the possibility of would-be vigilantes thinking they can stop crime with a gun. This could lead to needless deaths and incidents of cops shooting the wrong person in the crime.
Some people make the argument that allowing guns on campus will help prevent school shootings. They say that if a person intending on committing a crime were to walk into an area where others were armed, that person would be less likely to take the chance of shooting.
That was probably what the school board for Kern County High School District was thinking when it voted in August to allow non-employees to carry concealed weapons onto school grounds, despite concerns raised by community members.
Others say allowing students to carry guns would lead to more people being interested in firearms, which would lead them to study and become more acquainted with gun laws as well as how guns should properly be used.
However, in my opinion, the negatives outweigh the positives for this law, whether in Texas, California or any other state. There is already too much gun violence in our country and in my own community, where shootings are an all too common occurrence. The harmful effects of easier access to guns outweighs any of the positives. You cannot solve violence with violence. Believing you can is just foolish.
Victor Seguin, 17, is a Youth Reporter at We’Ced. He enjoys Anime and Rock music and is obsessed with Thrilling Intent. He loves to draw, write, and read. Victor see mental health as a huge matter that is overlooked in our community, the entire Central Valley, and within our youth. He hopes to one day help in the efforts of bringing a youth mental health facility to the Central Valley that is made specifically for youth.
