The story could not have been more disgusting if it had been fabricated. One year ago, a student killed 32 people and himself in a campus rampage. In a twisted sort of highlight ceremony, a man visited that campus last Thursday and spoke to the merit of concealed weapons.
The same man, that is, who sold a .22 to the student now known simply as Cho, who used that weapon in a part of his murderous foray through Virginia Tech’s campus. The same man who sold two 9-mm magazines and a holster that aided Steven Kazmierczak in killing five people and himself at Northern Illinois University just two months ago.
Guns are certainly making a comeback; just a few months ago, an Arizona state bill was introduced that would allow college students, faculty and staff to carry concealed weaponry on campus.
In light of the continued, horrific history of on-campus violence, gun control must be tightened, not loosened. Campuses and surrounding areas should be rid of, not flooded with, weaponry of all forms.
The outrage that should meet online gun dealer Eric Thompson’s visit to Virginia Tech is not merely a visceral reaction to a headline. It should stem from the great disrespect his visit marks against the families and friends of those slain by weapons that were once in Thompson’s hands.
Any visit by Thompson to the campus should be one full of apologies and caution against gun proliferation around campuses, not promotion.
Of course, the Students for Concealed Carry on Campus of Virginia Tech did not share this line of thinking.
Though cries of “Free speech!” are sure to rally behind such blatantly offensive events, free speech need not come at such a cost of insult and disrespect.
Quotes attributed to Thompson by Virginia Tech student reporter Caleb Fleming only add to this head-scratch-inducing level of foolery. According to Fleming’s article published on CNN.com, Thompson said, “Guns kill, they certainly do, but so do cars and all sorts of other things.
“What we need to do is focus on the person that’s doing the killing,” he added.
This final aside is an aptly morbid comment, given that many school shooters turn the weapons on themselves as their final act of violence.
Comparing firearms to cars and “all sorts of other things” (a decidedly vapid phrase) is a tired pro-Second Amendment technique that fails to recognize that cars and “all sorts of other things” serve a practical purpose aside from their violent accidents ““ cars are meant to drive, guns are meant to kill.
Concealed guns are meant to allow one the ability to kill based on a constitutional amendment that fulfills a now historically archaic role in American (and global) society, and they serve no purpose on college campuses.
While critics of police responses are justified in their frustration, it is naive to believe that a body of concealed weapon carriers on campuses will constitute a responsible, controlled, trained security force. Given the remarkably small percentage of students who will ever be exposed to a school shooting, the likelihood of such a trained student being in the same room is next to null.
A New York Times article from March of this year described 15 states as “considering legislation that would authorize or make it easier for people to carry guns on school or college campuses under certain conditions.”
According to the same piece, the Arizona state senator who introduced the bill in her own state wanted to allow all public schools ““ from kindergarten up ““ to be swarmed with weapons.
Thinking back to my elementary school years, I shudder to imagine second and third grade teachers brandishing weapons in any circumstance.
The Times quoted an aerospace engineering student at the University of Arizona as saying, “If word gets out students are arming themselves, criminals will be, like, “˜Maybe we should back off.'”
This is certainly flawed reasoning, which depends on an ideal image of students as part of an elite armed militia that would be capable of picking out a “criminal” from innocent students in the chaotic environment that characterizes any mass shooting spree.
Such logic ““ any logic that condones on-campus concealed weaponry ““ is ultimately baseless and ignores the fact that said “criminals” are not holding up lecture halls for lunch money; they are deranged young people killing others and themselves.
E-mail Makarechi at kmakarechi@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.