TIM WESSELMAN: Keep guns off college campuses

The Georgia Senate is considering something University System of Georgia Chancellor Hank Huckaby has opposed: an increase in the number of concealed weapons at Georgia colleges and universities.

The paper-thin pretext for House Bill 859 is concern that a rash of armed robberies on campuses has imperiled students who must take up arms.

Reported support for the bill focuses on Second Amendment rights to the exclusion of the rest of the Constitution. A minority of gun owners simply does not care if their legal gun will endanger anyone else as long as it makes them feel safe.

No other country has a level of civilian firepower comparable to America’s arsenal. We have become a nation where toddlers shoot people on a regular basis. Each day more than 80 Americans are killed by a bullet. More than 50 of these Americans kill themselves. The closer people are to a gun, statistically, the more likely it is to kill them.

A state Senate committee heard from a significant number of opponents to Campus Carry last week, but ignored them. To blame partisan politics and the gun lobby for this overlooks inaction by a third party: the rest of the state.

Georgians may want to consider something. If your child is going to college in Georgia next fall, are you going to feel better knowing he or she is “protected” by the stranger walking next to them with a hidden gun? Share your answer with your legislator.

TIM WESSELMAN

Albany