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Students with permits should
have weapons for potential defense
A lot of us have read recently about school shootings.
One of the most recent was at the Appalachian Law School, in which a
student did what has become almost mundane for far too many of us. Many
of us read that the student was stopped by his fellow classmates, and
we might have passingly thought those young men heroes for stopping
the student. What probably none of us read, though, was that two of
those students were armed with guns of their own. Had they not been
armed with those weapons, they might not have had the courage or the
ability to stop things when they did, and the newspaper headlines might
have been even more tragic the next day. (http://www.nypost.com/seven/01252002/postopinion/opedcolumnists/38115.htm
, and I can send the article to anyone who requests it).
My question is, then, what would we, as Purdue
students, be able to do in that situation? We attend class on a campus
which forces even those of us who have weapons permits to sacrifice
security for an education. How tempting must a large lecture hall be,
with hundreds of defenseless students and only a few exits, for murder-minded
individuals? How much less inviting must that seem when the potential
attacker realizes that even an anonymous handful of those students possess
the ability to defend their lives and the lives of their classmates?
I'm tired of being put in an ideal situation for
victimization for the sake of political correctness. We need to realize
bad things happen, and though it's unpleasant to consider, those of
us who are willing should be able to arm ourselves for defense against
such an eventuality. Please consider making Purdue a safer place, give
those of us with weapons permits the ability to defend ourselves that
we need and deserve.
Shawn Hayes
Sophomore, School of Liberal Arts
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