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The Right to Bear Arms and College Campuses Essay

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Gun control on campuses all across the United States of America has been a controversial and popular debate topic for me ever since I woke up one morning on April 20, 1999 and witnessed, what at that time was the deadliest campus shooting in our history, at that time. Obviously I am talking about the shooting that occurred at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado where Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris attacked their school and opened fire on helpless students, brutally murdering 12 students, a teacher, and then killing themselves. I may have been young at the time of the shooting, but it definitely was my first interaction with deadly violence in a campus setting and opened my eyes to the harsh reality of how crazy our world can be at …show more content…

The first, being the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting in Blacksburg, VA on April 16, 2007. This cowardly and savage attack was carried out by Cho Seung-Hui. This attack left 33 people dead and became the deadliest shooting rampage in a campus setting in history. This became more horrifying than Columbine, in my opinion. The reason I say that is because I was a Junior in High School when the Virginia Tech shooting happened and I was taking standardized testing that entire week. The next day, as what happens so frequently after a high profile national news story, we had a copy cat who threatened to do the same thing to our high school. I had never experienced so much high level security at my high school prior to that week. It was clear everyone was on edge, from the students, to the faculty, and from the police and SWAT that were on site at our high school. Fortunately nothing happened, but I remember being very uneasy that week. Ever since that week from hell, I have wondered what it would have been like if we, as students and faculty would have been allowed to carry a firearm to protect ourselves during that uneasy time. As I look back on that time I realize with everyone being on edge, had we all been allowed to carry for protection, maybe the nerves and edginess would have been slightly less and more subdued. Unfortunately, we will never know. Tragedies like what occurred at Virginia tech brought a mass political

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