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Harvard Crimson: College Students Can’t Handle Guns Because Their Brains Aren’t Fully Developed

Harvard Crimson: College Students Can’t Handle Guns Because Their Brains Aren’t Fully Developed

Then why do we let them vote?

A new editorial from the Harvard Crimson claims campus carry is an awful idea because college students’ brains aren’t finished developing. Also, they’re drunk a lot of the time.

This is not parody:

No Guns on Campus

Sex toys are only loosely related to safety, but at the University of Texas, they have become instruments of protest against state legislation forcing public campuses to accept concealed carry of handguns. The legislation took effect on Aug. 1, the 50th anniversary of UT Austin’s clock tower massacre, one of America’s deadliest mass shootings.

The law’s supporters take the stance that concealed carry is a part of their Second Amendment rights. But if gun proponents truly want to maximize safety, measures other than the further proliferation of arms should be sought out. Put bluntly, making college students in the tumultuous years between late adolescence and full-fledged adulthood the first line of defense for Texas’ most esteemed public institutions is a questionable means of making the state’s campuses safer.

Neurology confirms college students’ dubious decision-making abilities. The frontal lobes, the area of the brain responsible for ultimate decision-making, may not even fully develop until the 30s, and one of the last areas to mature. While this lagged development should not exempt college students from all responsibilities, Texas ought to reconsider the prudence of relying on gun-toting 20-somethings for campus safety.

The environment of undergraduate life itself also gives ample reason to question the wisdom of concealed carry. Alcohol and drugs are undeniable parts of college life, and combined with unfinished brain development these mind-altering substances could easily lead to accidents.

Featured image is a screen cap.

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Comments

Treat people like babies and they’ll never grow up.

    Mannie in reply to 4fun. | September 10, 2016 at 10:09 am

    That’s the point. It makes them easier to control.

    Tell that “not mature enough” sjit to the 19 year old on patrol in A’Stan, or the 22 year old half-trained cop they want to call when the stuff is in the fan.

I am sure that Harvard students today are indeed much less mature a few generations ago. /snark

But they are mature enough to vote?

If they’re not mature enough to carry a firearm at age 21, they’re not mature enough to be in college and they damned sure aren’t mature enough to VOTE.

That’s weird, because the government considered me a fully trained machine gunner when I was only 17.

If you are going to carry on campus, carry extremely discretely. Consider using a retention holster and becoming proficient in its use, and learning some weapon retention techniques, and perhaps secondary weapons like knives. There will be Libturd nutcases who will try to provoke an incident, or try to disarm you. This has already happened in the off-campus world, and there are several Internet turds promising to attack CCW wearers.

An attempted disarm is a deadly force attack, and warrants a deadly force response. While the attacking Libturds’ lives don’t matter, it would still create a nasty incident that we don’t need, and could become a personal disaster. For all the loose talk out there, we really don’t want to have to shoot anyone.

Be careful out there.