Protestors should ‘get a job’

In regards to the planned walk-out in protest of Proposition 300 (“”Students plan May 1 walkout””), why is this such an ordeal? I am a legal U.S. citizen; those affected are not. I’m not protesting paying out-of-state tuition.

If you are not from Arizona, you should not be paying in-state tuition. If you were not illegally in the U.S., then there would be no issue. Get your citizenship, get a job (I have two) and pay your way like many college students.

Eric Kolb criminal justice administration sophomore

Gun ownership an inherent right

In his letter, “”Switzerland, U.S. Constitution can guide gun control,”” Antonio Villarreal suggests that the Second Amendment applies to the rights of the state to keep militias for the public defense. Unfortunately, history suggests otherwise.

Numerous letters written by the Founding Fathers of this nation, as well as legal decisions including the recent Parker vs. District of Columbia case, suggest or explicitly state that the Second Amendment exists specifically to preserve and defend the pre-existing right to keep and bear arms.

Indeed, common sense also applies: The Founding Fathers had just defeated the British Army, with the aid of the French, through the use of private arms. Naturally, the Founders were distrustful of an oppressive government … why, then, would they give any government, even a state government, the exclusive use of arms and deny the citizens the very weapons which lead to their freedom?

If the words “”the people”” in the other amendments in the Bill of Rights refer to individuals, how does “”the right of the people to keep and bear arms”” apply only to a militia? Quite simply, it doesn’t. This is a common misconception about the Second Amendment.

More information, citations and quotations on this issue can be found at www.guncite.com. In particular, an interesting analogue is discussed at www.guncite.com/gc2ndana.html.

Antonio is right, however, in his statement that the right to keep and bear arms is not granted by the Second Amendment – the right is pre-existing, and no law can remove it. The Second Amendment exists solely to protect and defend that right.

Pete Stephenson physics junior

VT killer deserves no excuses

I am one of those far-left fringe liberals you hear so much about, and I do think that stricter gun laws would have prevented the tragedy at Virginia Tech, but I also think there is a much stronger underlying problem.

Brace yourselves: I’m about to blame society. Not the society that bullies people into mass murder, but rather the society that buys into the fact that one can be bullied into mass murder. It’s bad enough that at 17 years old the Columbine shooters felt entitled to kill their classmates for wronging them, but for a 23-year-old grown man to do it is ridiculous. I mean honestly – grow the hell up.

This smacks of teenage angst over Susie Head Cheerleader not going to prom with you. What a lame, privileged, entitled way to live. Where does someone get off saying that spoiled rich kids were mean to him when he’s so spoiled he thinks he has a right to kill people? What a sad, pathetic hypocrite.

I will not join my fellow liberals in wishing people were nicer to him in high school. When I was in high school, some of the girls there started a club dedicated to hating me, but I wasn’t so self-involved that I considered myself a martyr. I considered myself a 16-year-old girl who was a little weird. He didn’t endure anything worse than anyone else who had an accent or skinny legs or a learning disability in any other city in America.

So, society, do yourself a favor: Don’t worry so much about the guns (although, again, I think we need more gun control); worry about the disgusting example you’re setting by saying people should be nicer to a murderer.

Katie Mann junior majoring in English

Guns, God all that students need to be safe

Guns in school would not be a problem if our schools returned to how they once were in better days. Years ago, even elementary school students would bring a loaded rifle to school and leave it in the back of the classroom so they could hunt on their way home, and they never had any problems with psychotic morons shooting up their classmates.

Why is this? Because God was once allowed at school, too. Before the Supreme Court started ruling against our nation’s Christian heritage, we were a society that feared God and had a sense of morals. Guns did not cause the horrible crimes of recent times; our cultural disintegration did.

I rarely go anywhere without packing serious heat because the police are nothing more than a cleanup crew. I once called the police to report some gunshots in my neighborhood. Guess how long it took them to respond? Half an hour!

People need their own self-defense tools, if for no other reason than to make sure the tag goes on a criminal’s toe instead of their own.

Alex Hoogasian political science senior