Today is the first day that the campus concealed carry law will go into effect. Students are wondering if allowing guns on campus encourages people to commit a hate crime? Does the law make us safer or not? Does campus concealed carry even make sense?
It seems everyone has a different answer to these questions.
But I want to know why can’t we just live together without harm and danger? Today, we are worried about guns on campus because, throughout the history of the world, violence has been a part of human society. We seem to be unable to find a way of fixing our problems without killing or torturing others.
Now we question why people are able to buy a gun without any real difficulty, and we hear the mantra, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”
Protesters on both sides abound, but it seems we only create a greater division amongst ourselves. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen anything that has stopped the shootings that are happening worldwide, and now, locally, people are feeling fear and trepidation with the new implementation of concealed carry on our campus.
Recent shootings and terroristic attacks have created more tension and confusion as to whether people should approve or dislike a law that will allow people to walk around with concealed handguns around campuses. Some professors, parents and students have shared their negativity toward the law arguing that guns will create an unsafe environment.
Today is the 50th anniversary of the 1966 mass shooting at the University of Texas at Austin, where Charles Whitman, a student and former Marine sniper, shot 46 people, killing 16 of them and leaving 31 wounded. On July 31 of that year, he also stabbed and shot his mother and, after arriving at home, he stabbed his wife to death.
Whitman had written a note where he said “After my death, I wish an autopsy on me be performed to see if there’s any mental disorders.” Whitman even told his psychiatrist about the anger and hate he felt for his family and the intentions he had to go up to the tower in UT Austin to shoot people.
He was shot and killed by Austin police officers, which saved many people from getting injured or killed.
What I want to say is that people who show signs of any mental disorder should not be allowed to buy or own a gun, let’s make it harder for people with mental disorders to get a gun, and let’s offer them the help they really need in order to deal with the problems they are going through. But I also think that instituting this law on this specific date in history is somehow disrespectful to the victims at Austin.
Personally, I would never take a gun to our campus–I don’t feel I need it. Since day one at UTEP, my security is one of the last things I worry about, plus I don’t know if I am capable of managing a gun in a moment of danger, I probably have the worst aim when it comes to guns. I’ve never shot a gun and I’ve never even been remotely fascinated with them.
But now with the new law, I feel uncomfortable. I feel fear for my friends and professors. I fear that if we tell a joke someone will get offended and just shoot us. I fear that someone who hates a specific race or sexual orientation will want to shoot them even more so because now they are able to walk around with a gun without breaking the law. I can hear and see the fear of my father and grandmother who keep saying that our government is insane for allowing us to have guns in our classrooms.
I fear that there will be confusion among us if a shooting takes place at UTEP. Professors may fear that giving a failing grade might create enough anger in a student for them to be shot.
I believe that the majority of the students at UTEP understand the harm a person holding a gun can cause to an entire city. They know the situation of our sister city, Ciudad Juárez, where we heard, saw and even experienced some of the horrible violent incidents with guns that resulted in the death of thousands of Mexican citizens. Our students are aware that guns in the hands of unqualified or the wrong people can end in a very tragic way, and some students have lost friends and family members.
I believe this law is affecting those students, who were witnesses to the increase of violence in Juárez. They went through hell because people used guns to kill and now they have to re-experience that fear of not knowing if the person next to them has a gun.
We go to school because we want to better our futures. School is about learning, educating yourself and wanting a better future without creating a danger to others.
If students do decide to take guns to school, I want those students to protect their peers and friends if an incident happens. I want those students who are contemplating walking around campus with a gun to stop and think about whether they are prepared to handle that gun.
I have fear because people get mad over stupid stuff, and if they do it while they have a concealed gun, they might end up doing something that they will regret.
It does not matter if you like or hate guns, you have to be aware that this is a complicated issue and that you have to know the facts and different opinions in order to better understand what it means to have a gun.
Don’t walk around with fear thinking everyone will have gun on them; there are restrictions and requirements. Take a look at these and be informed about how things will be working at our campus. Be aware of any changes and how you might be affected by the changes.
Let’s just go to school and manage to do great each semester, let’s forget about anger toward someone at school. Just do your own thing, talk and be friendly with everyone. Let’s finish every day at school without the necessity of using a gun, without causing any type of harm.
For more information, visit UTEP’s website about the new gun law at sa.utep.edu/campuscarry/.
Rene Delgadillo may be reached at [email protected].
