"Put that shotgun away, this is a gun-free zone!"

Something tells me that shouting these words at a crazed lunatic pointing a firearm at your face would not be very effective. But unfortunately, this is really the only defense teachers and students have against any armed offender on most college campuses.

After a sexual assault of a SLU student, I wrote an article in our University News making the case for concealed-carry on campus. It received mixed results: people I barely knew bothered to look me up on Facebook and send me messages of approval, while some friends came to think of me as a psycho advocate of violence. One of the arguments against my case is that our Department of Public Safety (basically campus security) should be the only individuals allowed to carry guns on campus because of their "experience" and training. Since then, there was an armed robbery literally in the parking lot of an on-campus apartment building and a mugging; the bank in the middle of our crowded student center was robbed as well.

DPS does not have the presence to protect students at all times. It simply does not have an adequate force. SLU is a university of over 10,000 students; hundreds of classes are going on all day. Unsecured buildings with thousands of individuals all within a few blocks of each other, and everyone knows not ONE of them has a way to protect themselves: sounds like a good target for a psychopath to me.

These college shootings are an incredible tragedy, but the real tragedy is that they could be so easily prevented. If one in ten students here at SLU legally owned a handgun (which is legal under state law at age 21) and had the proper training to use it, no one would have anything to fear of a shootout like this. These shooters have time to reload their weapons! They just stand in one place and pull the trigger; the only thing the victims can do is run or hide.

I get so angry and frustrated when this happens, because it is so easily prevented. It is such a cliche that is made fun of all the time, but it is most certainly true: guns do not kill people. People do. And guns are one of the most effective tools we have to protect ourselves. This "feel-good" policy of banning every gun from campus is unrealistic, absurd, illegal, but most importantly, dangerous.

The day every gun is removed from the evil people in our society that wish to do us harm, then I'll consider supporting gun control. But that is not the reality: putting guns in the hands of law-abiding students will only make campuses safer.