Once again we have been confronted with a crazed student opening fire on classmates and professors on a college campus. As most of you know, six students were killed and fifteen others were wounded at Northern Illinois University last week. It goes without saying that Gustavus’ thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of all involved.

The other result of such senseless violence is that it forces people to reevaluate the rules and regulations that were designed to protect us from these catastrophes. Many anti-gun groups have come out saying that this is yet another glaring example of why we need stricter restrictions on guns. Our presidential candidates on both sides, who should be most focused on giving us real solutions, have avoided the topic completely.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton fear financial opposition and attack ads from the NRA, and John McCain—as of last Sunday—has yet to say anything on the issue because he doesn’t want to scare off the moderates and conservative Democrats who made him the presumptive Republican nominee. The candidates talk a lot about change, but are still stuck in the old politics of not taking a stand on controversial issues. This definitely isn’t the type of change I can believe in.

I believe the victims of this tragedy and those from the earlier tragedy at Virginia Tech deserve better. That is why I feel obligated to give you my opinion on how we can prevent similar disasters from occurring in the future. The only way we will be able to stop these shootings is to make sure that crazies aren’t the only ones with access to guns. We must reassert our Second Amendment rights given to us by the United States Constitution and allow responsible American citizens to “keep and bear arms.”

At Northern Illinois the gunman even had time to reload because no one had the means to stop him. If trained, registered and of-age students, faculty and staff were allowed to responsibly carry firearms on campus, would this kid have been able to cause so much destruction? I hope you are at least willing to consider whether allowing registered guns on campus could have possibly reduced the number of students murdered in these cases.

I recently heard a story about a restaurant in one of the sketchier parts of Detroit that was repeatedly being robbed. The owner of the establishment was all but ready to shut down his restaurant, but decided to try one last experiment. He replaced his “No Guns Allowed” sign with a new sign stating “All Guns Welcome.” Since then,there have not been any more robbery attempts and not a single shot has been fired because criminals know that this is a restaurant that is not to be messed with.

As the old cliché goes, “Guns don’t kill; people do.” Many people feel that giving more people guns will lead to daily Wild West showdowns, though why should responsible gun owners start behaving recklessly? My mother has an entire drawer full of sharp knives in her kitchen, but to my knowledge she has never cut or stabbed anyone. If I were to give you a gun after proper training, would you ever use it in an irresponsible way? We should all feel much safer if the ration of crazies with guns to sane people with guns was lowered.

We all hope that nothing like the tragedy at Northern Illinois ever occurs at Gustavus, but I believe it is our responsibility to take proactive steps to ensure the safety of current and future students. Gustavus cannot afford to put its student’s lives and safety at risk by following the actions other liberal institutions. Whether it is altering our policies to allow guns on campus or creating methods for faster response by law enforcement, college campuses can no longer wait until they are attacked to take action. Now is the time for Americans to stand up, reassert their rights and be able to defend themselves and those they care about.

Photo Courtesy Of: MCT Campus