Town & Gown

There is a nearby institution of higher learning where a small group of students demonstrate that they wish to have their second amendment rights to bear arms on campus: they walk about the campus during the day with empty holsters.

A spokesperson was heard to say that they had a right to defend themselves.

Indeed.

Perhaps it is the remora of campus shootings that resonates within us; we think there is some semblance of logic because - in truth - people are going around shooting each other, particularly on the quad where it is like shooting fish in a barrel. These stories and tales swim in our minds like great cinema, and we nod our heads, thinking, yes, some day a wild eyed terrorist will indeed burst into Biology 101 and start shooting. It is regrettable, but there you are.

In the Middle Ages, things were rough, too. From the Ratio Studiorum of the Jesuits ( 1599 ) we read in the Rules of the Prefect of Lower Studies:

No one shall be permitted to carry weapons either in the corridors or in the classrooms, even of the higher classes.

I am guessing that the motivation behind the rule was that weapons tend to be used, whether a terrorist is at hand or not. How far our civilization has progressed, that we may think ourselves capable of carrying weaponry everywhere and not have the slightest worry that we shall misuse or abuse them. How advanced we are that our places of learning are the settings for slaughters, real or imagined.