Sane and sober minds have reacted with alarm and scorn to the recent harebrained proposal put forward by the Texas legislature to permit hand guns on college and university campuses. In letters to the editor of the Houston Chronicle, a parent, a prospective student and a professor let their views known.
Professor’s plan
As a professor at the University of Houston, I would heartily endorse a bill of the Texas Legislature allowing students to carry pistols into class. I would amend my course syllabus to provide on the first day for both an introduction to the course and a lesson in shooting. If my students were to encounter a dangerous person charging into the classroom — a terrorist, bigamist, extortionist or plagiarist — I would have them form a circle around the miscreant, pull out their pistols, and shoot him. The only problem I foresee is that some of my students might be “C” or “D” students, and they would possibly miss the intended criminal, shooting, instead, their classmates across from them.
This, would, however, be classified as collateral damage, and my students would not be charged with a crime for the death of their classmates.
As an amendment to the bill, I would have the Legislature authorize the installation of artillery cannon at strategic sites on campus. These cannon would enable us to respond to mortar shells being shot into the campus from downtown Houston or other hostile venues. To ensure the accuracy of the artillery, I would ask the computer science department to provide a course of instruction for students in the newly designed GPS/INS (fire-and-forget global positioning systems and internal navigation systems) utilizing military satellites. No prerequisites for this course would be required. The ability to read and forget is an inborn trait.
Irving N. Rothman,
professor of English, University of Houston
It's more hysteria
Regarding Saturday’s Page One article “Bill would allow guns on campus”: Having a son who will be off to college in the fall, I have now decided to look for colleges in states other than Texas. Sen. Jeff Wentworth’s “safety protection bill” is one of hysteria and ignorance, something we don’t need more of in Texas education.
He is willing to put guns in the hands of kids on college campuses who, like most of us who were in college, are partying in herds and filling brains full of beer. Students in public schools are being sent to alternative schools for bringing Korean pencil sharpeners to school, writing on walls, standing up to bullies and just basically being junior high and high school students. How is it justified to embarrass and degrade a grade-school kid for being immature and making bad choices and then allow college students to carry a gun at a time in their lives when they think they are invincible and all adults are idiots?
Wentworth should be working on how to keep guns “out” of schools and our children safe, not exacerbating the problem.
Maribeth Walsh
Katy
A student’s view
I believe allowing guns to be carried at school would greatly affect academic life. Students should be entitled to a peaceful environment, in which to learn and prepare for a career, without having to protect themselves by carrying handguns. It should be left up to the school and their security officials to determine what measures need to be carried out in order to keep their school safe.
I would feel very uneasy knowing that the student seated next to me carried a loaded handgun. Although I am for our Second Amendment right to own and carry fire arms, they don’t belong in our schools.
Kristen English,
16, Spring
Accidental Blogger 