MCT-The tragedy that claimed the lives of 33 students and faculty at Virginia Tech last spring still looms over college campuses nationwide. Students, administrators and parents alike are struggling with the question of safety on campus.

For the more levelheaded, the answers lie in better communication, increased vigilance on the part of campus mental health providers and more visible public safety patrols.

For others, the answer is more firepower in the hands of students.

At Virginia Tech, a lone gunman went on a violent rampage, killing 32 people before turning the gun on himself. Apart from the gunman, all of the victims were unarmed.

The incident has translated into a movement to allow students to arm themselves while on campus.

Andrew Dysart, a senior at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., recently organized a chapter of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, a national student organization that supports the right to carry licensed, concealed firearms on college campuses, in the hopes that students can defend themselves in situations like the one at Virginia Tech.

People like Andrew are not alone. The organization has recently gained support among those who believe that campus-shooting tragedies can be avoided if students are allowed to possess guns for self-defense. Their goal is to push state governments to approve laws to that effect.

As it stands, 38 states ban weapons at schools and 16 of those ban firearms on college campuses specifically. All other states, including Virginia, allow the school to make its own decisions on whether or not to allow students to carry guns on campus.

It’s difficult to ignore the violence that is often associated with guns. We all know that guns kill people. I mean, people who are shot tend to die more often than people that aren’t, right?

Some offer the cliche, “Guns don’t kill people, PEOPLE kill people.” Yeah… PEOPLE WITH GUNS kill people! And that’s precisely the argument for keeping guns off of college campuses.

Allowing students to carry guns to protect against guns will probably only result in more bullet wounds. A gun is an offensive weapon no matter the context. A shield is protection. A bulletproof vest is protection. David Ortiz hitting behind Barry Bonds is protection. A gun is for shooting at targets, living or otherwise.

Should people have access to guns in college, a place where teenagers are trying to discover themselves and their environment, and where the resultant emotional instability is the norm? Should we introduce firearms to an environment that is characterized by experimentation?

What if Jimmy goes to his first frat party _ a wild frat party with beer, shots, mixed drinks and possibly marijuana… oh, and licensed, concealed firearms!

Or what if Suzy falls in love during her sophomore year? She feels the kind of love that we all wish for, the kind of love that only people on a Fox TV show or MTV are allowed to experience. Suzy then finds that her true love is cheating on her. And the moment she learns of her boyfriend’s infidelity… she has a licensed, concealed firearm strapped to her waist!

And what about those fraternity pledges? Many freshmen want nothing more than to pledge their favorite fraternity, but no one said it would be easy. The frat brothers constantly humiliate young pledges and force them to undergo a rigorous and sometimes-violent pledge process. Now imagine that both frat brothers and pledges carry licensed, concealed firearms!

Of course there are responsible people out there _ people who will use firearms as a last resort, people who will lock their guns away and people who will look at their guns for what they really are: weapons.

But it only takes a few angry or irresponsible people across the country to turn one tragic Virginia Tech incident into a number of tragedies every year.

Of course, safety is of paramount concern. There is no denial of the need to defend innocent students against potential gunmen in their midst. And it’s hard to be rational while staring down the barrel of a gun. But there has to be a better solution than saturating the college population with firearms for self-defense. (c) 2007, Kai Beasley. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.