Fresh from our "And yet another reason to avoid Arizona" file, MSNBC is reporting that a proposal to let people have guns while driving or walking through state universities and community-college campuses cleared its final hurdle in the Arizona Legislature on Thursday. Paul Davenport reports that the House passed the bill on a 33-24 vote, which will send it to Gov. Jan Brewer.
The Senate previously approved the measure, after watering it down to no longer allow guns inside campus buildings. But the bill still sparked sharp debate before Thursday's House of Represenatives vote. Some legislators think it's a bad idea because of the extreme "highs and lows" that students experience because of college life — i.e., grades and relationships — while others believe that it will allow students to protect themselves.
If guns aren't allowed in campus buildings, how will students, faculty and administrators protect themselves inside the buildings, which is where most campus shootings happen? Sounds like flawed logic to us. If the assassination attempt on Gabrielle Giffords and the murder of six others by a young person isn't enough of an indicator of what might happen, then we don't know what is. Perhaps if legislators were privy to the many psychological problems and medications that students are on today, they might sing a different tune. Sadly, we think they'll find out just how bad an idea this measure is — and sooner rather than later.
Read more at MSNBC.
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