Apparently the lawmakers in Oklahoma abide by the popular saying “nothing bad happens in Oklahoma”, because state legislators are considering a bill that would allow students to carry guns on campus.
I’ll give you a minute to let that sink in. If it doesn’t sink in right away, I’ll give you the highlights again: STUDENTS. GUNS. LEGAL.
Many of you know that I don’t like to be called a Republican, and I have a couple reasons for that. First, I believe being held down by any one party is not a good idea – voters should vote for the candidate they feel will best execute the office, not the candidate who is a member of their favorite party. But second, and most importantly, there are a few issues I disagree with most Republicans on, and gun control is one of those issues.
The second amendment states, according to a quick lookup on Wikipedia:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
This is what many Republicans look to in their arguments that any redneck, militia leader, terrorist or mental patient should be able to own a gun. Most Democrats argue that gun control is constitutional. Gun control now consists of registration and a slim background check in order to obtain a license, and poof! You’re legal.
Now gun control isn’t quite like other issues in this country, where people may break the law because its inconvient to follow it. In most cases, people break the law because they want to shoot some stuff and the government won’t let them. In essence, our gun control solution isn’t working. And even if people do take the trouble to register, it’s certainly not foolproof. Two recent school shootings that come to mind, the ones at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University, were committed by students who had legally registered weapons.
How do you fix this problem? Obviously there needs to be a way for people who should be allowed to own weapons to do so legally. What I would propose is a psychological evaluation to go along with the registration. Basically if someone goes to buy a gun, they would first register and then visit a local government office (a DMV, probably) for an interview conducted by a psychologist there. Instead of looking at someone’s past, we would look at their mind as it stands when they want to get the gun. I think in order to own a gun, the average person should be able to look at the gun owner and say honestly, “yeah, I feel comfortable that this guy knows where I live and owns a gun.” That’s the criteria, more or less, that the evaluation would look for. Not only would this catch people who are likely to murder or commit offensive acts against others, but it would catch people who are about to attempt suicide. This type of evaluation would have certainly caught the Virginia Tech shooter before he acted.
Obviously this is a radical departure from most of my political views which go something like “Dear feds: get out of my way. Love, Jimmy”. But I think gun control is one of the most important things facing this country today (or at least most underrated) because lately its becoming trendy to commit suicide by killing a bunch of other people first.
So, back to the Oklahoma state legislature. Are you crazy? Sometimes I wonder if politicians have a toggle switch between smart and dumb somewhere in their head so that someone can hit them over the head with something hard and the switch changes.
By the way, here’s a disturbing quote from that article linked above (my emphasis):
“This has to be the craziest thing I have ever seen,” said Rep. Ray McCarter, D-Marlow, one of several lawmakers who said the measure is opposed by college administrators.
If the people who are on campus every day are against the measure, serve your constituents and don’t pass it.