Enacting stricter gun laws will not keep criminals from breaking the law

In a recent column in The Daily Orange, liberal columnist Harmen Rockler expressed his view that students should not rely on themselves, but on police and campus security for their own safety.

I am a liberal on all fronts except that of gun control. I am a firm believer that when seconds matter and the police are only minutes away that guns are the answer. Ask any law enforcement officer, and he or she will admit the fact that you are only as good as the weapons available to you. If someone comes at you with a gun, you better have a gun or be able to outrun him or her. A call to the police will do nothing to help you until after you lose your property or, God forbid, your life.

I encourage people to not have their opinions tainted by a bunch of opinions offered to you by an obviously biased party; you must look at the facts. The fact of the matter is that by definition, criminals do not follow laws. Therefore, by enacting stricter gun control laws, you are not preventing any more crime other than by otherwise law-abiding citizens, who will then be forced to disarm while the gang bangers and scum shooters that give gun enthusiasts and well-armed citizens alike a bad name.

Well-behaved members of society do not go around shooting up innocent victims. In the incident of the Aurora, Colo., movie-theater shooting, a gun in the crowd could have been able to save numerous lives. However, because guns were banned by the private movie-theater company, law-abiding citizens did not carry on the premise and were left to play victim to a mad man

Look at the facts! There have been no incidents of gun violence on the college campuses by “crazed students” where campus carry is allowed. The majority of violent crimes on college campuses are rape, robbery and aggravated assault, with murder accounting for less than one-tenth of a percent.

Take matters into your own hands; do not rely on campus police and security to protect you. They do a wonderful job and in no way do I mean to bash them, but they simply cannot be everywhere at once. Until campus carry is enacted in New York, we are all defenseless.

For more information on Campus Concealed Carry, I implore you to look at the common arguments against gun control at: http://concealedcampus.org/common-arguments/

Tiernan Mendes

Class of 2014

Chemical Engineering