Running With Guns

Today, I watched online with horror as police in tactical gear swarmed the Engineering School at UCLA, my alma mater. Shots had been reported, and so mindful of incidents at other schools, the police rightly responded with a show of force. Ramparts were set up, armed officers swept through every room, while terrorized students, staff, and faculty attempted to barricade themselves in rooms.

Throughout the siege, frightened people slowly emerged, hands in the air, subjecting themselves to pat-downs and bag searches. In the absence of any useful information, the police did their best to make sure that the shooter didn’t just quietly walk out with all the others in the crowd.

Everyone did their job, and as I watched the drama unfold, I could not help but muse how different things might have gone had more people been armed. Imagine a couple of people in the building, hearing shots, grabbed their own guns and ran out into the hallway. They could just as easily shot each other, or been shot by the police.

And yet, this is exactly what the gun lobby wants: everyone on campus armed. Had that been true at UCLA this morning, what was already a tragedy could have turned into a bloody horror show.

Already, the ammosexuals are chortling: “See,” they say, “California has gun control and that didn’t stop this from happening.” No, it didn’t, because we already have too many damn guns. We need not just more laws, but a complete cultural shift away from venerating guns. Our nation needs to change. Do you live out in a rural area, far away from your local sheriff, and you need a rifle to keep varmints away from your chickens? Fine. Just keep your guns off campus and out of our cities.

Had there been more guns at UCLA this morning, more people would have been shot.

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