It’s somewhat surprising that GW has a long history of gun debate on campus, especially when you consider that our campus has a strict no-firearm policy in the Student Code of Conduct, and even the repeal on the D.C. gun ban had little to no effect on our campus. The latest spark in the debate came from a column by Tom Braslavsky discussing D.C.’s horrendous choice between gaining representation and implementing laws pushed by the pro-gun lobby. In addition, the College Republicans made a trip out of the District this past week to test their hands at shooting, something they can trace back at least to 2001.
Last year, the arguments about guns focused on whether or not UPD officers would be armed. After very intense scrutiny, and a review by an outside consultant, it was decided that GW would not be giving firearms to its police officers. Many were quick to take sides, but few if any of those vocal on the topic had access to the data necessary to make that decision; most important of which was the reaction time of the Metropolitan Police Department versus that of UPD.
Digging a little bit further into GW’s history, one finds the efforts of a few enterprising students to start a pro-gun ownership group. Ironically, this a few months after the killings happened just a few hours away at Virginia Tech.
Sadly, as of Sunday, we have another reminder about the dangers of gun violence. A 9-year-old boy was killed in Columbia Heights during an attempted robbery. The boy was apparently fleeing into his apartment after shots rang out, but was killed attempting to reach safety. There will be those who use the twisted logic that if more people had guns this situation would never have happened (if everybody had a gun ready nobody would ever use them, right?). But the argument can’t be applied in this case, there were officers already in the area and still the tragedy occurred.
The gun ownership advocates and opponents can argue the second amendment all they want, but forcing D.C. to choose between representation and relaxing its gun laws is immoral. Personally, I’m just sad to say that we have lost a fellow Northwest resident to a gun in a city, that for the most part, doesn’t want them.
