Submitted by Johnny Fenner
There is no need to recap our nation’s recent and traumatizing history of school shootings. It is a terrible common knowledge that this night mare has become a very real threat to every school across the country. It is important to note that many occurrences of these scenarios do take place every year but the majority are resolved safely and swiftly, hundreds in fact. It is only a handful that tragedy truly strikes and we are then confronted by their horrific occurrence. But why are so many resolved so well? The answer to this is in an old motto whose words, that as a criminal justice major, I stand firmly by. Those words being “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun, is a god guy with a gun”. In the event of a school shooting there is truly little time to act and no time for a weak response in the defense of a shooters victims.
The truly only for sure way that a gun man can be stopped is for him to be confronted by equal or greater lethal force. In my opinion the quickest and most professional manner to deliver this force in the defense of the innocent is a solution that is already on our campus. This would be by the training and arming our local security service. In the event of a school shooting it is highly likely that local law enforcement authorities, no matter how close, could not respond quickly enough to potentially save a number of student’s lives. The surest way for any immediate protection would be through our schools security.
This topic was recently put fourth in a survey that asked students if they would be willing to pay just a mere five dollars more a credit to help fund the professional training and arming of schools security. To my shocking amazement many of my fellow falcons casted their vote against such a small price to pay for the added protection to their lives. What?! It is hard for me to believe that anyone would not be willing to pay five bucks for their life, to me it is as simple as that. I would like to encourage our student body to rethink such rash disconcert. We have been pretty lucky in the campus’s history, but it is not a matter of if but when. This simple measure of added protection could seriously end up saving a large number lives in the event of a shooter crises, and would even be viewed as a deterrent against anyone considering doing harm to our school’s student populace. Even with the added security I would hope that no active shooting situation would ever occur at our school. But as an added safety precaution wouldn’t it be better to have this force protection option and not need it than in the worst case scenario need it and not have it?
That said there is also the topic of discussion floating around the country that college students should be allowed to carry a concealed weapon or CWC on campus if they have the proper certification. I’d like to make it bluntly clear that I am and have always been a weapons right advocate, even an NRA supporter.
When I say I am against this so called student self-defense proposal it is not due to any reason except for the fact that any defense of our school should be in the hands of focused and calm professionals who have spent countless hours in training and not that of a frightened and armed student. To me this proposal is ridiculous, there are a number of reasons why the idea itself raises a security risk. Mainly for the obvious reasons it raises the possibility of an active shooter situation by making it easy for the said gunman to plainly bring his weapon on campus. In the event of a school shooting if this is in the everyman for himself environment as proposed, it would only create more chaos.
Outside of school as part of my everyday retail job I enjoy selling firearms to many fellow weapons enthusiast. I even support my right to carry a concealed weapon on the daily in many aspects of my life.
I fully support the need for our school’s professional security to be able to carry firearms as the proper approach to solving this problem.
ECC Cornerstone 