April 29, 2008 02:38 pm
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Carolina has seen its share of tragedy over the last few years. While no one can make sense of what amounts to nothing but senseless violence, we can do something about it. We can get serious about stomping it out and saving lives.
2006 was an especially dangerous year. In March a deranged former student Mohammad Taheri-Azar terrorized our campus by driving an SUV through the Pit, running over nine people, in the name of Allah and in defense of Muslims. In April three people were shot dead by hoodlums just off Franklin Street during the “Apple Chill” street festival. In October, a UNC Charlotte student was shot in Chapel Hill after Halloween celebrations.
In March 2007 UNC’s mascot, Jason Ray, a model student and wonderful human being, was killed in a hit and run in New Jersey while traveling with the men’s basketball team during the NCAA tournament.
Subsequently two men, father and son, have been arrested for contributing to his death.
2008 is no less tragic. A few days ago Eve Carson was brutally shot to death, apparently in a random robbery. Two men have been arrested and have been charged with her murder.
If memory serves, I have not mentioned Eve by name in my writing, but I have made reference to political tussles she and I fought over the past year. We disagreed on a lot.
But we also tried to work together on a few things, and that’s something that doesn’t happen often between the student body president and student congress speaker. As much as these political competitions irritated me, it was fun still. But campus politics doesn’t seem quite as important now.
It took a few days for the news of Eve’s murder to feel real on me. Even through the memorials and candlelit vigil, it still felt like a movie. Within hours of the news of her death Fox News and other media outlets had asked me and other students for interviews, but we refused to go on TV.
When reality took hold, I admit I was angry, and more cognizant than ever of life’s fragility.
Eve’s death is just the most tragic and high profile case in a long string of crime in the Durham-Chapel Hill area. A few months ago a man was shot dead in the parking lot of the Food Lion in Carrboro where I normally shop.
In recent weeks violent crime has swept across Duke’s campus and surrounding areas. Two weeks ago my next door neighbor, a teenager, was arrested for shooting another youth in the stomach in Carrboro. One of those charged with Eve’s murder is also wanted for the murder of a Duke graduate student in January.
Seems like every week we hear about a school shooting or other violence on our college campuses. Parents probably feel like they’re sending their kids off to war instead of school.
The scary thing is the police are really powerless to do anything about it. Police can apprehend criminals after the fact, but it is very difficult to prevent the crime.
When a thug attacks you, there’s no time to call the cops. When someone breaks into your home, you are on your own. When a shooter opens fire in a school, the shooting usually doesn’t stop until the shooter turns the gun on himself. So, what good does police protection do?
I told someone the other day that I will soon be applying for my concealed weapon permit. They told me, “Yeah, but even with a permit it’s still illegal to take a gun in a lot of places.” I responded, “Then I guess there are some things more important than the law.”
The purpose of government is to protect life, liberty and property. When the law won’t let you protect your own life, then the law is inadequate. And that’s unacceptable.
While it isn’t always appropriate to take the law into your own hands, sometimes there is no other choice. It’s regrettable that our culture has somehow forgotten this lesson in human experience.
President Bush, a crusader for “comprehensive” immigration reform, has ridiculed the Minute Men volunteer border patrol as “vigilantes.” Why is vigilante a bad word? We are told to be “vigilant” to lookout for suspicious terror related activity. So, what’s wrong with being a vigilante?
Criminals love unarmed victims, reads one popular bumper sticker. I’m sure criminals also love “gun free” zones too… mostly because they can be sure that they will be the only ones that have guns.
We’ve got to make some societal changes if we want to stem the tide of violence. We could try stricter gun control, but let’s face it: the people who would commit murder aren’t going to follow gun control laws anyway.
We should not rush to curb civil liberties, not even the right to bear arms.
The notion we must sacrifice our freedoms to buy security is a false dichotomy. The last thing we need is for only the government and criminals to have guns. Governments become corrupt and criminals prey on the innocent.
We need to allow law abiding citizens to legally protect themselves by allowing responsible adults who get proper training to carry concealed weapons everywhere.
We also need to get serious about punishing criminals, and electing judges and district attorneys who are serious as well. Until we do something to give law abiding citizens a fighting chance against criminals, we can expect more preventable violence against innocent, unarmed students.
Tar Heel Dispatch is written by Tyler Younts, a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Younts, who grew up in Farmer, has a passion for writing and for politics and for writing about politics. E-mail comments to news@randolphguide.com or directly to Younts at younts@email.unc.edu
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