More on Campus Gun Violence

Source: WikipediaWhen I look back on some of the best years on my life, the time I spent in college without a doubt encompassed a majority of those years.  It wasn’t because I had an unfulfilled childhood or because my high school experience was deficient of anything that I wanted in my life at the time.  My present family situation and lifestyle is also one to be envied and something that I wouldn’t give up for anything (outside of the fact that we haven’t been able to relocate back to Tampa yet…but that’s a story for another post).

This brings us to the news today of another incident involving violence, death, hostages and firearms on yet another college campus . I can’t seem to comprehend why this is happening or what could be done to counteract it.

On February 15 of this year I posted an article about the recent shooting at NIU and at the time, thought to myself how this had to be the last campus shootings we would hear about in awhile.  Today, it was the University of Louisville.  Less than 1 year ago at Virginia Tech it was the deadliest shooting on U.S. soil ever.

What choice does this leave for school administrators?

They could turn their campuses into walled fortresses complete with checkpoints, armed guards and metal detectors at the entrance of each building.  Not necessarily a decision that I would go with, but at least there would be additional assurance of student safety.

Alternatively, the admissions process could require additional psychological screening in the hopes of weeding out high risk individuals before they are matriculated into their programs.  Something about that idea carries with it a resounding sense of civil liberty suppression that would result in more harm than good.  This is not to say that personal safety is less important than civil liberties, but more so that American universities need to strike a careful balance between the two if they are ever going to restore a sense of safety and security in the minds of their student.