I'm... actually not, honestly. Like you said, it wouldn't matter whether those college students had passed a skills test or not, or whether or not they knew it was illegal to carry after drinking, so requiring a skills test or a test on the laws wouldn't prevent idiocy.
I mean, every US state licenses drivers, and in the two states where I've taken the exam (Montana and Texas) the exam materials emphasize that driving after drinking is Not Okay. And yet... people do it anyway, even people who should really know better, and as a result the government responds with education campaigns (there's a nice billboard I've seen of a car where the front half is a taxi and the back half is a police car and the caption is "Your Choice - Don't Drink And Drive" or something along those lines) rather than by making it harder to get a driver's license.
In general I don't like "gun-free zones", because the same restriction that might keep a drunk frat boy from shooting a friend negligently will also make every law-abiding student living on campus an easier target for someone who isn't law-abiding, and won't keep a drunk frat boy who doesn't think the rule applies to him just this once from still causing a tragedy. (For the record I am okay with government buildings not letting people who aren't the police carry, because government buildings tend to have guards; also, I'm okay with places of worship requesting that their congregations not carry weapons.)
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Date: 2010-03-16 04:36 am (UTC)I mean, every US state licenses drivers, and in the two states where I've taken the exam (Montana and Texas) the exam materials emphasize that driving after drinking is Not Okay. And yet... people do it anyway, even people who should really know better, and as a result the government responds with education campaigns (there's a nice billboard I've seen of a car where the front half is a taxi and the back half is a police car and the caption is "Your Choice - Don't Drink And Drive" or something along those lines) rather than by making it harder to get a driver's license.
In general I don't like "gun-free zones", because the same restriction that might keep a drunk frat boy from shooting a friend negligently will also make every law-abiding student living on campus an easier target for someone who isn't law-abiding, and won't keep a drunk frat boy who doesn't think the rule applies to him just this once from still causing a tragedy. (For the record I am okay with government buildings not letting people who aren't the police carry, because government buildings tend to have guards; also, I'm okay with places of worship requesting that their congregations not carry weapons.)