College is a place for learning, not just about academics but also about life. Young adults on their own for the first time have been known to drink too much, crack under academic pressure, brawl after a football game. That’s hardly the formula for responsible gun ownership. Yet state Senate Republicans wanted to undo a ban against weapons on college campuses.
Thankfully, the proposal was scrapped, after police chiefs for Florida’s state universities and other critics united against it. The debate took on emotional overtones in the wake of a fatal frat house shooting at Florida State University in January. But even had that tragic accident not occurred, there is no good reason to change this law. Ever.
The National Rifle Association and Sen. Paula Dockery of Lakeland want us to believe that guns on campus are necessary for students and teachers to defend themselves from violence. That’s what the police are there for. Let’s not turn institutions of higher learning into places of fear.