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The way we see it…
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There has been some controversy drifting around campus about the new proposed concealed weapons legislation (Senate Bill 1381) and its possible effect on Boise State University. Opinions concerning this bill are diverse on campus as well as within The Arbiter’s Editorial Board. Due to a wide spectrum of opinions, we felt it necessary to allow everyone on the Ed. Board their own words.
Fix the problem
BY JACQUELINE WAYMENT
Opinion Editor
We are a nation that fixes symptoms, not actual problems. To allow students to carry guns on campus is to put a Band-Aid over a wounded social and educational system.
While we tout our right to own guns, we don’t look at the reality of what that means. Of the last 50 school shootings across the world since 1996, 41 of the occurred in the US, followed by Germany with three school shootings.
What is really difficult to swallow is that these crimes were perpetrated by students as young as 6 years old. The majority of the shooters were of junior high or high school age.
“.In every nation, region, or city with television, there is an immediate explosion of violence on the playground, and within 15 years there is a doubling of the murder rate. Why 15 years? .That is how long it takes for you to reap what you have sown when you brutalize and desensitize a three-year-old,” wrote Lt. Col. David Grossman who studies what causes people to go against their natural inhibitions toward killing people.
How many of your classmates would you give a gun to and still feel safe? Fix the problem; screw the Band-Aid.
Are guns the answer?
By Ryan Rasmussen
Assistant News Editor
I thought I knew the answer to the guns on campus question. In light of recent events the answer is unclear. What is happening on campuses across the nation is terrible. Legislation to allow concealed weapons on the BSU campus is being discussed.
It makes me nervous that the man next to me could be walking around with a gun ready for use. It would be like being back in the Old West. Will we start having showdowns at high noon on the quad?
If someone is going to do what has been done at NIU and VT then they already made up their mind to do it. Law or no law. The fact that maybe someone in my class could take the shooter out and save lives is somewhat of a soothing idea.
Is there a clear answer? No? Maybe? We need to find it. Whether we say no guns on campus or make teachers start their class syllabus: “Along with cell phones on silence make sure all guns are on safety” is something for us to decide. Individuals need to decide for themselves and speak their mind.
-Does your ’safety’ come with a safety?
BY STEVE NORELL
Production Manager
Before I delve into my view on this topic, I should first say that I come from a hunting background, and I believe strongly in all of our constitutional rights as Americans. But these rights come with responsibilities. According to the Ada County Sheriff’s Office website, courses
sufficient to obtain a conceal and carry permit can include hunter’s safety training, or a course provided by the Sheriff’s Office which requires no handling of weapons (http://www.
adasheriff.org/Records/cwp.asp). Hunter’s safety did not provide me with the tactical weapons training necessary to effectively engage someone in a gunfight or discern whether a threat is real or not. These duties are the job of the police. In an atmosphere of fear, small altercations could be taken to a devastating level, if guns are brought into the picture. In the heat of a gunfight, police officers might be forced to either make a split second decision about who the real shooter is, or hesitate, and potentially allow more lives to be lost. That is not a price worth paying in exchange for the possibility of a little more personal safety.
I do think steps need to be taken, not only at Boise State, but on campuses everywhere to keep students safe. I’m not sure exactly what these steps are. Perhaps more campus police and security is the answer. Maybe we need to be more concerned with the mental health of students, to help prevent things like this. The answer doesn’t lie in putting this kind of responsibility in the hands, and holsters of students.
I don’t want guns on campus
BY DUSTIN LAPRAY
Editor-in-Chief
Picture it: you are sitting in class, reaching for a pencil. The student next to you has a pistol in his shirt.
No matter what you believe about the U.S. Constitution or the second amendment, there is no reason why a student, faculty member or regular citizen should carry a gun on campus. I would never feel comfortable knowing students carry weapons. When people carry weapons they can threaten and intimidate others. How can we possibly engender an atmosphere of free expression of ideas when a student can flash a pistol, or a shotgun at classmates.
I don’t trust half the kids on campus with a sharp knife, let alone a handgun. If we allowed guns, would knives and brass knuckles be allowed too?
I don’t want any weapons on campus. Ask the state legislators who want guns on campus if they are willing to allow guns in the statehouse. If they feel comfortable knowing any drop-out or nutcase can come in legally wielding a weapon, sitting down in their offices, then they can pass the legislation.
State senators don’t want that. Who would? I don’t want it in my office, my classrooms or anywhere near my vicinity. Weapons are a last resort of desperate people. Allowing guns on campus would legally allow that resort to be forever present.
We need to feel safe
BY SHEREE WHITELEY
Managing Editor
If the idea of allowing guns on this campus had been brought up a year ago, I would have scoffed and wrote it off as the single most ludicrous idea in the history of ideas. Recent events have pushed me to the other side of this argument. I don’t know if students carrying guns to school is the ultimate solution to this problem of campus violence. All I know is that my sense of security on campus died along with the victims of Northern Illinois University. We need to do something; take some sort of action against this senseless violence occurring on campuses across the country. We need something more than the extra police officers who occupied campus for a short time after the tragedy at Virginia Tech. I want to know that if a gunman opened fire in a lecture hall, I would live. Until we figure out a way to make this campus secure, until the safety concerns of every college student can be put to rest, give me a gun.
America’s youth needs assistance, not ammunition
BY CHARLOTTE TAYLOR
News Editor
I was in eighth grade when two Columbine High School students killed 12 classmates in the school’s cafeteria. The American community was devastated, grasping for answers amid the chaos. My friends and I were afraid to go to school. We watched our classmates with suspicious eyes, and I know they watched us with the same scrutiny.
Nine years later, I am once again afraid for my life. The massacre at Virginia Tech and the killings at Northern Illinois are not what cause me unrest. Those were horrific tragedies. My heart goes out to the fallen and their families.
The Idaho State Legislature wants to allow concealed weapons on the state’s university campuses. I understand the intention. Students do not feel safe. They wish to protect classmates and themselves from what feels increasingly like imminent danger. If someone trained in weapons-use was in the right place at the right time, I don’t see an incident being prevented. I see the ‘hero’ becoming a target. I see students caught in crossfire. I see more senseless tragedy.
I don’t claim to hold a solution, but arming America’s youth is not the answer. I suggest an examination of the mental health of students. People ages 18-25 are prone to a host of mental illnesses. Thosee who commit these atrocities are ill. We need to encourage those around us to seek help.
Perhaps to rid ourselves of this nation of fear, we should look at each other with concern rather than suspicion.
Brains over bullets: guns in classrooms are a bad idea.
BY SHANNON MORGAN
Assistant Opinion Editor
I fully support the Second Amendment and feel the right to protect myself against enemies foreign and domestic is essential to my liberty. However, Americans who exercise this right need the wisdom to know when to use our brains rather than our bullets.
In every school shooting since Columbine you see blame being placed on everything from violent movies, to violent culture and a gamut of possible causes. I don’t know why these atrocities happen, but I know it’s urgent we figure it out. After Virginia Tech, I felt some comfort in the fact the shooter was deranged. At least that meant a “normal” person wouldn’t be capable of doing what he did. The shooting at Northern Illinois University was far more frightening to me because some people described the shooter as “normal,” even outgoing and bright. In both cases it’s obvious these men had serious psychological problems.
The VT killer claimed the deaths of 32 people to communicate a message which failed to reach the rest of us.
He did remind us human life is fragile, fragile enough someone can rob us of our faith in the good nature of humankind. They scare us so we feel compelled to bring weapons to classrooms, to blow away would-be murderers. We need to use our brains rather than our guns. We need to get to the root of the problem and find a solution, so tragedies like this don’t continue to happen in institutions of higher learning. As much as I support our right to own weapons, I don’t want them in my classroom.
Campus is not a battlefield
BY CHRISTOPHER OHGE
Copy Editor
I just received an e-mail from a very good friend who attends Northern Illinois University. She was stunned and dismayed at the surrealism resulting from the tragedy at her university. She did not lament because her school should have more armed students; she did not wish students could have exercised their “God-given” right to bear arms; rather, she reacted to an event that reflects many other inestimable tragedies in our absurd world. But many others also react with an equally absurd proposition: in order to protect ourselves from guns, we must have more guns. Besides the redundant arguments that appeal to pity and emotion (which are logical fallacies), many people refuse to acknowledge the abundance of studies showing that possession of guns leads to more conflicts and violent crimes, regardless of the subjects’ mental health. Just pick up any intro to social psychology textbook, and read the chapter on aggression. Most studies have concluded that preemptively arming oneself may increase danger and preparations for self-defense increase an individual’s risk for aggressive behavior. Many people who also feel similarly motivated to arm themselves often commit violent crimes. Check out studies by Boyanowski (1981), Lowry (1998) and Bingenheimer (2005). If we really think most of our students can defend themselves like a trained action hero, then we are truly delusional. We need to pay more attention to mental health and campus security, not more armed students.
The way we see it is based on the majority opinions of The Arbiter editorial board. Members of the board are Dustin Lapray, editor-in-chief; Steve Norell, production manager; Sheree Whiteley, managing editor; Jacqueline Wayment, opinion editor; Shannon Morgan, assistant opinion editor; Charlotte Taylor, news editor; Ryan Rasmussen, assistant news editor; and Christopher Ohge, copy editor.
ARBITER EDITORIAL BOARD