Trav Trippa
photo courtesy of motiffake.com
In this day and age it’s not too crazy to believe that people have taken to arming themselves for their own personal protection. For the citizens of the state of Arizona, the second amendment is a serious issue. Ever since the tragedy in Tucson in which Jared Lee Loughner took six lives and injured nineteen people including U.S. Representative Gabrielle Gifford. The gun debate issue is more wide open more than ever and includes some pretty far-out proposals. One of the those has AZ law makers proposing that community college instructors be allowed to carry a concealed weapon with them as long as they carry the proper permits. Gregory Ferris, a former attorney of 35 years with the federal government and instructor on the Paradise Valley Community College campus believes differently. “The 2nd amendment to the Constitution does not “justify” students or faculty carrying weapons on campus, it allows citizens to bear arms in general. The argument that includes students and teachers is valid, however, you can imagine the tension that would be created in the classroom environment if a significant number of teachers and students carried weapons openly” says Ferris. He makes a very valid point. I can only imagine the horror being created if a gunfight went down on a college campus with potential injuries and fatalaties bestowed on innocent students caught within the crossfires.
The Right To Bear Arms…In Certain Places
It’s no big secret that law makers in Arizona have passed a bunch of laws recently that favor practitioners of the 2nd amendment. The right to carry a concealed weapon carries with it a lot of power and that power seems to make the average gun-toting citizen of Arizona feel a bit like Clint Eastwood in a Western. Gun laws have been enacted that allow citizens with the proper weapons permits to carry a gun in a business establishment like a restaurants, bars, and other public places. But if you have to really ask if firearms should be allowed to be carried on community college campuses, then you’d get a surprising answer from the security. Paul Keller, a Public Safety official on the Paradise Valley Community Campus had this to say about the 2nd amendment and how it pertains to students and faculty on campus. “I don’t think our forefathers were thinking about weapons in an educational facility when they wrote the 2nd amendment” says Keller. Here is another point that should be taken into consideration. It’s very rare for someone to have such an onpoint perspective on such a matter, especially in this state where the gun statistics are frightening to some people. It gives the people the impression that Arizona really is “the wild, wild west”.
If We All Can’t Carry Weapons, Who Can?
I’ve always been of a believer that the proper figures of authority should be required to carry a firearm. Authority figures go pretty much without question. I’ve always felt safer knowing that the average police officer carrying a firearm of some sort has the power to stop the someone from trying to hurt me, injure me, or rob me. But then again, there are so many police officers in the city and they all can’t protect the average citizen. So I can sort of see the logic that law makers in Arizona have in passing gun laws to the average firearm possessing citizen. Byron Calvin, a security guard for a well-known firm and U.S. National Guard member and also former student of Paradise Valley Community College had this to say: “A citizen should have the option to defend themselves. But, also go through the proper training and learn the laws that go with the responsibility. Educating citizens who wish to defend themselves with firearms should go through proper procedures.” I know for sure that I can definitely see the logic with that. It brings to mind the cases of elderly citizens who get robbed at night by the average criminal thieves. If only they would have got the proper weapons training then they would still have their valuables on them.
The Situation As It Stands
You can have all the qualifications for owning and possessing a weapon at certain times and it could backfire on you. That’s probably the most remote possibility ever to happen, but you can’t leave it to chance. Imagine this scenario: a college student with hate issues comes to school one day in the wrong mood and proceeds to go on a shooting spree that leaves people injured and dead. Now imagine this, another college student who came to class that happened to forget to lock his weapon up in his vehicle and takes it with him to class that day. Then the moment happens when these two armed students lock horns and a gunfight ensues that leaves even more innocent students injured and dead. Two wrongs don’t make a right and if that’s what these issues of gun control are teaching us, then it gives us a possibility that hasn’t been examined. I, myself don’t carry a firearm. It’s not that I’m a pacifist by any means, it just means that I don’t think carrying a weapon all the time gives me comfort. Having a loaded weapon stashed in my bookbag doesn’t make me feel like “Dirty Harry“, it makes me fearful that I may have to take a life when the situation calls for it. I know there will still be debates over these issues, but I for one choose to stay out of it.
threatpoet 