Do guns really make us safer? The National Rifle Association has suggested that tragedies like the one at Virginia Tech could be prevented if students were allowed to carry guns on campus. They argue that guns give "good" the ability to defend against "evil."
Having lost several close friends to the shooting at Tech, including the girl I love, it is my responsibility to correct this notion. As I've struggled with Maxine's death, I have thought more about the circumstances of that massacre than the vast majority of people on this planet. I have spoken extensively with survivors and with first responders. I did not only witness the aftermath; I was part of it.
If Maxine had been carrying a gun, she would still be dead today. I learned through conversations with police that she was never even aware there was someone with a gun in the room.
What if she had seen him come in? What if she had been carrying a handgun? Would she have taken her gun out and shot someone else before he had the opportunity to fire? Shoot first, ask questions later?
I like to think that asking questions first is what makes the good people different from the bad people. Still, I doubt he would've given her the opportunity to speak, let alone draw.
There is a positive side to school shootings, believe it or not: Until this last year - and even now - they are extraordinarily rare relative to other types of murder.
By my count, about 60 people have died in school shootings since April 2007 (beginning with Virginia Tech), compared to an average of 80 gun deaths per day in the U.S. Fifty people were injured in the tragedy at Tech, but two hundred are wounded by guns every day. That makes schools some of the safest places in the country and I attribute that security to the lack of guns on campuses.
Those who would carry guns on college campuses argue that they are more responsible than the general population. According to the Violence Policy Center, though, "From 1996 to 2000, Texas concealed handgun license holders were arrested for weapon-related offenses at a rate 81 percent higher than that of the general population of Texas aged 21 and older."
Still, I suspect the problem is not with the gun owners specifically, but rather that guns put everyone in more danger. According to the Center for Disease Control, more than half of gun deaths in the United States were suicides in 2005. Unfortunately, we will learn little else on the subject from the CDC, since in 1996 Congress ordered that none of the center's funding be used to promote gun control. Despite this lobbyist-funded censorship, the message is clear: Guns are an issue of public health.
The existing threat to public health would be compounded by the mixture of firearms and college students - people at a volatile age, more inclined to drink, to be violent and (at least occasionally) to make poor choices. Imagine: no longer will we worry only about drinking and driving; in addition, we can also worry about taking shots of tequila followed by taking shots at people.
A favorite talking point of those advocating guns on campus is that continuing the campus ban will attract so-called bad guys in droves. What they forget is that the shooter at VT was already on campus: he lived there. He purchased guns under a similar background check system to the one employed in Texas for issuing concealed handgun carry permits. Although his purchases were illegal, a loophole in Virginia law allowed him to slip through the system undetected. The NRA consistently opposes the closing of similar loopholes.
After 9/11, gun sales increased dramatically. Despite the clear irrationality of defending oneself against anthrax or airplanes with a handgun, carrying a weapon apparently made people feel safer. But a feeling of control should never be mistaken for actual safety.
If we are to become safer, it will be through reforms to the states' and federal background check systems and the elimination of loopholes, not by permitting guns in places that are already safer than the rest of the United States.
Woods is a biology graduate student.
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