A recent letter to the editor said that "Taking away someone's gun because they might shoot someone is like cutting out their tongue because they might yell 'fire!' in a crowded theater."
This is a fairly apt analogy, but for one thing, a tongue can be used for many other things besides yelling "fire" -- eating, for instance, or reciting poetry or yelling to stop a car from striking a pedestrian.
However, to borrow a phrase from author Gary Paulson, the sole use of a gun is to punch holes in other human beings. There is no need for anybody to secretly carry around campus devices designed expressly to maim and kill. If handguns are allowed on campus, then we may as well allow people to bring in bombs, nerve gas and rabid attack dogs. No matter how "safe" that vial of drug-resistant anthrax makes me feel, it still has no place in the classroom. The same is true for firearms.
Rachel Taylor
sophomore, mathematics