Remember after the viginia tech shooting, a lot of pro-gunner's were advocating allowing college students to be armed in school. When whats-his-name went on that shooting spree the students were essentially helpless, thus it's argued that a school full of armed students could have taken him down and stopped the whole massacre.

One guy on CNN argued against this, saying "yeah, and how many students would have been killed in the crossfire?". Personally I think that's a stupid argument. There's a decent chance that nobody would be killed, that a few students would blow him away incident-free. But even assuming students are killed the crossfire (which is absolutely possible), you can't tell me the cross-fire would have killed 32 students, the number the shooter managed to kill while they were defenseless. Accidential deaths during the shootout simply cannot number as high as purposeful deaths by an unopposed shooter, that's just rediculous.
Personally, I believe in the Virginia tech shooting an armed student body would have been very beneficial.


On the other hand, what about the rest of the shootout-free days? Is it really sensible to allow a bunch of testosterone-pumped 20 something guys to carry lethal weapons? I wonder how many dorm-room fights there have been where students have completely lost their temper and fought one another. What if once in a while some of those students, blinded by rage, lost their temper and whipped out their handgun and shot the guy they found in bed with his girlfriend, or stole his stash, whatever? What if handgun carrying makes students more inclined to form gangs? Commit crimes? Rob one another? Lose their temper and pull it on a professor that just failed them?

For me, there's no easy answer, at least no answer that's absolutely right or wrong. I thought a compromise might be to arm just the instructors and give them proper weapons training, so at least somebody can offer protection. Or even better yet, pay for a few armed guards in the hallways (but you can bet that would put the already too-high tuitition up).

I have no firm stance either way, but I'm probably least inclined to give guns to the students. What are you opinions on the matter?
Gandalf_The_Grey Reviewed by Gandalf_The_Grey on . What do you think about allowing college students to carry guns? Remember after the viginia tech shooting, a lot of pro-gunner's were advocating allowing college students to be armed in school. When whats-his-name went on that shooting spree the students were essentially helpless, thus it's argued that a school full of armed students could have taken him down and stopped the whole massacre. One guy on CNN argued against this, saying "yeah, and how many students would have been killed in the crossfire?". Personally I think that's a stupid argument. Rating: 5