The debate over university gun control laws has risen again in the national media and here in the Technique, bringing with it the usual arguments.
Many people feel threatened with potentially fatal weapons in the classroom, while others feel safer with the opportunity for self-defense. But what if there were an option to answer both sides’ concerns?
Defensive tools like stun guns and pepper spray offer a reasonable alternative for personal safety, without creating a significant risk of serious injury. Unfortunately under Georgia state law, no student can have a taser on campus, even if locked away in the glove compartment of their car.
When every year seems to bring another school shooting by a mentally unstable student, and when every third school email explains a mugging incident on the back steps of campus, it becomes clear that we need to find a practical solution to make everyone safer.
How differently could that day at Virginia Tech have been if one of those professors or students had been prepared for the unlikely? And how would our campus crime statistics change, if criminals knew there was a good possibility of a painful jolt?
Georgia Tech does its best to keep students safe with the Stingerette and a very visible police patrol. But what about those 10 minutes alone on the street in the middle of the night before the Stingerette arrives, or those dark walks back into Homepark?
Granted, there is a chance for misuse or abuse, but what if there was a police directed, safety training course?
Questions like these should be included in an expanded campus discussion, because we as a community need to find a practical solution to the right to feel safe on our university campus.
Lizzie Elbel
Fourth-year ME
In “Peterson responds to the undergraduate white paper,” I noticed that the Technique doesn’t capitalize the word “Internet”.
I am aware that this is a growing practice in some publications and was wondering if this was the Technique’s official stance on the matter, or just a slip-up.
I am genuinely interested in this, so I’ll avoid an all out rant about how much I hate the dropping of capitals and punctuation in an effort to be trendy and cute.
I certainly wouldn’t complain if it were capitalized, though.
Thank you for your time.
Nic Reveles
Fourth-year MGT