Marc

Thursday and Friday were hard days in the aftermath of the NIU murders. I am directing the undergraduate program in politics at my university. So I have spent a lot of time during the past couple days talking to administrators,students and faculty on my campus about what this all means for us.

Then Friday night I got home and switched on the TV to find you having a debate with Bill O’Reilly about whether we should arm faculty on college campuses so that people like you and me can protect our students by opening fire. Clearly, you were on the right side of this debate, but I was just depressed that anyone seriously thinks more guns are the solution to our collective vulnerability.

I have had enough of watching young people die. Last year I gave a commencement address at my niece’s high school graduation on the Southside of Chicago. There were empty chairs for the seniors who were killed during the year. This fall a brilliant and promising graduate student was gunned down in the neighborhood where I used to teach in Chicago. We all saw the horror at Virginia Tech last year. Now this. But I know that concealing a handgun in my laptop case is not the answer.

Why does the gun-toting, conservative right in this country insist on wiping their bloody hands with the second amendment?

Before parents have even recovered the bodies of their children, these bullet zealots want assurances that no one will infringe on their ability to secure firearms at a moment’s notice from the corner store. You want to mock a cult Marc, let’s start with this one.

As professors we see students who are mentally ill; who are deeply depressed; who are suffering and often unable to cope.

Even at responsive and responsible universities, we know that some young people will slip through the cracks. Shouldn’t the first line of defense be reasonable legal limitations on gun ownership for everybody?

Melissa