One of the questions parents ask most frequently during college visits (after "How much money will you be taking from my wallet?") is "How safe is it on campus?" Unfortunately, in the wake of random acts of violence and school shootings across the country in recent weeks and months, it has become increasingly apparent that no campus is truly safe.
From last month's shooting at Northern Illinois University -- in which a gunman open fired on students during a geology lecture, killing five people before turning the gun on himself -- to the massacre at Virginia Tech less than one year ago, deadly violence has touched colleges across the country. Luckily, the atmosphere up here in rural New Hampshire makes the threat of bloodshed seem far away. But we should be aware that no matter how benign the town of Hanover appears, unless we address the roots of the problem soon, madmen with guns will always be able to cause great tragedy in college towns just like ours.
To hear that Dartmouth has increased efforts to improve security on campus is reassuring ("College Reacts to NIU Shooting," Feb. 27). New warning lights and a modernized public address system should help protect students if an incident similar to those at Northern Illinois and Virginia Tech were to occur here on the Dartmouth campus. But shootings at universities around the country are likely to continue until we make gun control a national priority.
Some people suggest that we can stop these shootings if we allow people to carry concealed weapons on college campuses. According to the New York Times, a number of state legislatures -- including Alabama, Arizona, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and Virginia -- are already considering such a law. Concealed guns could actually cause more deaths and injuries if fistfights escalate. Besides, a new law won't scare away the most dangerous people. Look at the shooting at Virginia Tech, for example. It was not someone likely to be wary of approaching an area where people are known to carry concealed guns who killed those 32 people. Instead, it was a mentally ill, 23 year-old college student.
Unfortunately, the underlying problem that we have to solve delves into one of the many recesses in the bowels of American politics: gun control. In the ten months since Virginia Tech, politicians -- perhaps too scared to anger the National Rifle Association (NRA) and its considerable lobbying power -- have refused to pass any significant gun-control laws, not even ones that would simply close existing loopholes and prevent people from obtaining especially dangerous guns.
No college should have to hold a candlelight vigil. Perhaps in the interest of homeland security, to steal a phrase from the Bush administration, Congress should pursue some obvious measures toward reigning in gun violence. A few steps would go a long way towards that goal, starting with more regulation on firearm dealers.
For example, background checks and waiting periods should be required for all gun transactions to ensure that criminals and the mentally unstable cannot buy these weapons. Yet the government doesn't even regulate sellers who hawk guns at outdoor shows or from the trunks of their cars. In fact, both Steven Kazmierczak -- the shooter at Northern Illinois -- and Seung-Hui Cho at Virginia Tech bought guns from the same dealer over the Internet.
Congress should also reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004. Despite the NRA's protestations, no one needs a military-style semiautomatic rifle for hunting or personal protection. The fact that the shooters at both schools used guns with high-capacity ammunition magazines -- that would have been illegal under the Federal Assault Weapons Ban -- should be enough to end their sale.
The Second Amendment says, "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." But I believe the founders would agree that people have other "inalienable rights," namely "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," that make us re-examine our position.
The New York Times reports that guns kill more people each year in the United States than terrorists have killed here, in Afghanistan and in Iraq since 2000. Far too many of those deaths have been college students just like you and me. No matter how safe we feel at Dartmouth, it's time to get serious about gun control, before more promising lives are cut short.
