Our
view
All
things cannot be controlled
Two professors are dead after a gunman opened
fire at the University of Arizona’s College
of Nursing on Monday.
According to an article on cnn.com, a witness
said that the shooter was a student who
had been barred from midterm exams. The
witness said the gunman fired at one professor,
fired at another, allowed students to leave
the classroom and then may have committed
suicide.
A disturbing, unexpected event such as this
makes us ask ourselves and wonder how safe
we are here at Cal State Long Beach.
What would stop this very same thing from
happening in any classroom on our campus?
Unfortunately, the discomfiting answer to
that question is ‘probably nothing.’
Following 9-11, police around the country
turned a great deal of attention toward
increasing security. University Police did
the same.
Recently, the University Police reported
that they are well prepared should any type
of terrorist attack take place. But after
the University of Arizona shooting, the
meaning of being well prepared is somewhat
lost.
Police at the University of Arizona probably
felt that they also were well prepared should
a terrorist attack take place. The fact
is, there was nothing police could have
done in that situation.
What happened at the University of Arizona
was an attack of terror that could not have
been prevented no matter how well prepared
anyone was.
Of course, the possibility of something
like the University of Arizona shooting
happening at CSULB is something nobody,
including University Police, wants to think
about. Nevertheless, it is still something
that could just as easily have happened
here.
No matter what precautions and measures
are taken, there are always going to be
deranged lunatics who have and utilize the
power to create tragedies.
The only way University Police can be prepared
for something unforeseeable is if they put
armed officers and metal detectors in every
single occupied room at the university,
which is simply impossible and ridiculous.
Even if armed officers and metal detectors
did occupy every room, there is still no
guarantee of safety.
After Monday’s shooting, there will most
likely be a surge of discussion about the
lack of security at colleges and what can
be done to protect students, staff and faculty
from future attacks like this one. The police
at the University of Arizona may even be
criticized.
As cynical as this may sound, horrible things
will happen from time to time for unexplained
reasons. And many of these things will be
impossible to control. With all the technological
advances emerging on a day-to-day basis,
we as humans seem to forget the simple fact
that not everything is under our control.
What happened at the University of Arizona
was a tragedy that no one could have prevented.
This is a fact that should be remembered
in the discussions that will surely follow.
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