One year later.....The issue of gun control

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of the atrocious Virginia tech shootings that left 33 students and professors dead. The shootings last year really affected me and I did a lot of research on the issues regarding the shooting, particularly some psychological research on the shooter himself and what constitutes the profile of a college shooter. When the anniversary came up yesterday I read many news articles discussing the anniversary and I was struck by a repeating theme on many different news websites. This theme is one that sometimes becomes a large issue in political discourse, although it has not made itself as known this election. This issue is gun control, which of course after such a large shooting, was brought to the forefront of everyone's mind. In an article entitled Students Want Chance to Defend Themselves, Michael Flitcraft talks about the movement that he began to have guns legalized for college students. He started this movement after the Virginia Tech shootings as a way for students to be able to protect themslves. Flitcraft is from Ohio, where gun control laws allow him to carry his weapon, but his college laws forbid it. He states, "To me it makes no sense that I can defend myself legally over there," he said, pointing to the city streets. "But I am a felon if I step on the grass over here." But, college officials feel that allowing guns on college campuses would only exacerbate a growing problem of collegiate gun violence. "I don't think the answer to bullets flying is to send more bullets flying," said Gene Ferrara, the police chief at the University of Cincinnati. "My belief is we ought to be focusing on what we do to prevent the shooting from starting." Ferrara also talks about the confusion that could arise if guns were legalized on campus. He says that in a case like the Virginia tech shootings if the police were notified and came to the school were there was a shooter and 10 students with guns trying to defend themselves, how do the police know which is the killer and which are the innocent students? He says, "The other side of that, I shoot everybody with a gun who doesn't have a uniform on and I then I end up shooting somebody who was a citizen with a carry permit."

It is important to remember that even with episodes like the Virginia Tech shootings, college campuses continue to be one of the safest places for people our age. Would allowing students to bring guns on campus add to that safety, or take away from it? How would students respond to a gun law being passed on campus? These are interesting questions, and I think they deserve attention. Another issue to remember when talking about guns being permitted on campus is the fact that Cho Seung-Hui was able to get a gun in the first place. When we talk about gun control laws it is important to remember that guns are not given exclusively to those who strive for justice and protection. Guns are too readily given to people who suffer from mental disorders and want to use guns for evil, as we saw. In an article entitled, Why was Cho Able to Buy a Gun? the author discusses the issues surrounding the gun control laws and why background checks, particularity psychological and mental testing are necessary. As the article points out, there is a disconnect between the federal and state government in what information is provided and how this information is used in legislation.
"Cho's case raises the issue of conflict between state and federal law. While federal guidelines may stipulate who is to be blocked from buying guns, it is the states that must provide the information to make the databases work. In practical terms, it won't matter what the federal guidelines say if state law says only certain people need to be reported. "Obviously there is no way that the sellers of the gun could have known what happened in the procedure with Mr. Cho," Bonnie told TIME. " Even if it should have been entered in the database under federal law, there was no way for that to have happened in Virginia, so the sale of the gun was lawful."
The article makes reference to charges that had been placed on Cho for the stalking of two women, in which a psychologist had stated that Cho had mental illnesses, but this information was not given to the federal government that issues the gun to Cho. This disconnect is a huge problem, and needs some serious attention.

I am not going to pretend that I could even begin to know what it was like for those students at Virginia Tech when the shooter was there, and perhaps if they had had guns that situation would have stopped, but I still feel uncomfortable with the permitting of guns on a college campus. I personally do not think that the way to end violence is to add more violence, it just does not seem morally Okay. Of course this issue of gun control on campus can be seen as a microcosm of the larger issue of gun control in America. The issue has had little attention so far in this election, and perhaps will become a bigger issue during the general. I think it is important to think about how gun control fits into the discussion of a pro-life ethic. One the one hand one might say that the protection sought through gun toting is pro-life in that it protects the innocent. Another might say that by allowing guns we are only promoting a culture of death. I think the two sides make for interesting discussion and debate, and I think that our leaders should be discussing this issue more openly, particularly in the remembrance of the shootings one year ago.