By Beacon Editorial Board
For many UP students, this campus is home. And even those who don't live on campus spend much of their time on campus - the university is a workplace for students, faculty and staff.
Naturally we expect to feel safe in our homes and at our workplaces. But last year's massacre at Virginia Tech and the shooting earlier this month at Northern Illinois University remind us that not even the classroom is truly safe anymore.
Not even UP - small, cloistered, private UP - is free from the specter of campus violence, and the University knows it. In the year since Virginia Tech, the University has reevaluated its alert policies, hoping to create a better means of informing students, faculty and staff of an attack, real or otherwise.
The problem is not university security or its failure. The problem is that deranged, sick people have access to the weapons that will transform their messed-up fantasies into reality.
The violence must stop, but it won't stop until someone starts paying attention to how assailants procure their guns.
Any rational person would be a fool to give a mentally ill person a gun. But somehow these deeply troubled people are armed. They have to be getting their guns from somewhere.
The first step in protecting students is enforcing gun laws. Don't sell guns to the mentally ill or felons. These people generally don't have excellent judgment and, when provided with an object designed to kill someone else, probably won't make the best decision. So don't give these people the opportunity to make that decision at all.
Many gun sellers - like most people - are trying to make a living. If a background check is the only thing stalling a sale, is it any surprise that checks are thrown to the wind?
That's why step two is stricter penalties for gun sellers who fail to complete background checks or who perform inadequate checks. Sellers aren't performing checks because they can get away with selling guns sans checks. Punish these people - don't let their carelessness destroy any more lives.
Finally, legislators cannot be afraid of tighter, more stringent gun legislation. No one has more power to end the onslaught of tragedies than our lawmakers. This is a matter of life and death. Legislators muse take the initiative to ensure that no student is afraid to attend class.
Columbine. Virginia Tech. Northern Illinois University. Our generation is haunted by school shootings, and the violence must stop. It has to, lest it become our legacy. We should not be afraid in the places where safety should be a no-brainer. Encourage your legislators and representatives to take a stand. Campus shootings won't end until those in power recognize them for the national emergency they truly are.
