College to me is many things: it is first and foremost a place for an education, a foundation for lifelong friendships, a way to learn different things and become a better person. Most importantly, it is a journey that prepares you for a better tomorrow and future beyond that. So tell me, how is it that I can have a better tomorrow with the constant fear that it will be cut short? How about my friends? Or the kid sitting next to me in my Astronomy class? How can you guarantee me and all of my peers’ safety when that one principle is being removed?

I know that the new campus carry will be implemented next fall 2016, and trust me, I understand the Second Amendment. I was born and raised in Texas. I get that guns are a right that we deserve as citizens. But tell me, when do those rights overstep their boundaries? Usually, the fact that someone brings a gun in the open to school was an automatic call to the police; now, if that’s the case, I just have to sit back and accept it. If the lecture hall is filled, and the only seat is next to someone with a gun, I have to just swallow that and try to not be scared while I listen to a history lecture. I’m supposed to stop worrying, just block it out, and learn. Funny how we come to college to do just that, but I don’t believe that learning will be at the top of my list when I am sitting next to someone who has their gun out in the open, not two inches away from me.

I think that we also possess the First Amendment in our arsenal, but how are we supposed to use that when the Second Amendment stops us from doing that? How are our minds supposed to expand our minds, the one thing promised to me when I came to UTA, when in an Anthropology class, in which we are discussing religion, or a Political Science class, in which we are talking about our political preferences, or a Philosophy class, in which we are talking about our beliefs? Am I supposed to feel comfortable speaking my mind with the fear that my opinion might anger someone? We go to a university to enrich our minds and souls to become better people, but if the most influential point in our lives is stifled in fear, then I do not believe that we will become better people. This law is not only making us fear for our lives, but also fear open discussions and free speech, something that we took for granted. How can we learn when you are single-handedly stopping learning in its most pure form?

It’s not just us students either. How can a professor, who has a student who is failing, meet with that student one-on-one in a small office with the overwhelming presence of a gun right there? How are they going to feel, as professors, with the fear of retaliation for telling the truth? These are all questions that are never going to be answered for us until we deal with the aftermath of consequences. I mean look around at all the shootings that have happened just this month. How can we possibly go forth with this law with the occurrence of our greatest fears happening to schools that do not even have campus carry?

I came to UTA to learn and to get a better education, not to sit near the exits and spend all class thinking of an escape plan should anything happen, and miss part of the lecture due to my worry. I want to walk outside and enjoy the fall weather and chat with my friends, not hurry to my next class due to the fear that something could happen. Fear. Out of all the things that I hoped to learn at college, that is definitely not one. And I hope that I never will, but I fear that I don’t have a say, because fear will be a part of not only my vocabulary, but also my mind. Something that should be occupied by the knowledge that my professors give me. We are blessed to live in a country that offers us so much, most of all safety and protection. What about those rights? I deserve those two, just like the second amendment, and yet they are taken away from me without my consent. So I will leave you with one final question: How can we concentrate on our education and our minds, when our bodies and our lives are at risk?