Editor,
I have to express sharp disagreement with the letter by Chris Perry published in the Daily Lobo on Monday regarding guns and safety on campus.
His suggestion to allow concealed handgun licensees to carry guns on campus is half-baked at best. At worst, it's quite disturbing.
Is the fact that someone is a licensed gun owner really a justification for him or her to bring a firearm on a college campus? In a worst-case scenario, if someone were to open fire here at UNM, are we going to be saved by a civilian hero who happened to have a gun handy that day?
Inviting students to engage in a shoot-out with a gunman is not the solution to the problem of school violence. If anything, this would just create a more hazardous situation for the people who would surely get caught in the crossfire.
Furthermore, blaming the media's coverage of such tragedies as the reason that they continue to occur is ridiculous. The media has its share of culpability here, of course, but trying to ignore that such atrocities are happening is by no means the answer. Perry seems to suggest that by photographing and publishing an image of a shooting victim, the cameraman should somehow be as blameworthy as the person wielding the gun.
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Not reporting the travesties that continually occur in our schools will not stem the tide of what has become a devastating trend. Instead, we have to look at the heart of the problem; America's troubled youth and the proliferation of gun culture in this country. We need to hear the stories. We need to have a dialogue about the things that we as a country are afraid to acknowledge.
The idea of allowing guns to occupy an even bigger place in our society only promotes more fear and mistrust. Maybe if we promoted the idea of people putting their weapons away instead of encouraging them to carry their guns everywhere, we would realize there is more than one path to empowerment.
Melanie Unruh
UNM student
