Allowing concealed weapons won't make University safer

Editor,

In the April 23 letter, Jean Aragon states that UNM Police being issued AR-15s is a step in the right direction, but is merely "a Band-Aid on a bullet wound." Aragon argues further that the real solution to campus violence is that persons with a concealed-carry weapon permit be allowed their arms on campus.

Aragon is just switching one Band-Aid for another. The "bullet wound" that Aragon refers to is not a campus shooting itself, despite the horror and anguish it causes, but rather the state of mind of the perpetrator and the apparent ease with which such a person can acquire a deadly weapon. I'm surely being hopelessly optimistic, but for campus violence to go away, America needs to find ways to prevent somebody's mental state from deteriorating to the point where they can justify to themselves the violence they plan to commit, and also to make sure that only a person with a sound mind and a strong sense of discipline and responsibility can acquire a deadly weapon. Clearly, no measures yet taken have solved either of these problems.

I would be inclined to agree with Aragon if UNM were a hotbed of campus violence, but the truth of the matter is that it's not, and neither is any other American campus. However, people make mistakes, even a person who has the discipline to earn a concealed-carry license. And the more people you have on campus with weapons, the more likely a mistake (potentially lethal) is likely to happen. Is such a mistake more likely than a school shooting? How many American campuses allow students to carry weapons? How many campuses of the thousands in the nation have had the appallingly ill fortune of experiencing a campus shooting?

However, Aragon does indeed make two good points. First: Armed citizens are often as effective, if not more so, than police responding to certain situations. And second: Because New Mexico has CCL laws and UNM is a public institution, then, perhaps, persons carrying a CCL have a legal right to exercise that permit.

Karles McQuade

UNM student