Shots are being fired all around. Recently, the number of mass shootings in the United States has increased both in quantity, as well as severity, and the media receives these shootings differently depending on the race of the shooter. Mass shootings are horrible, regardless of whether the shooter is black, white, Latino, Muslim, male, or female.

Anyone who opens fire on civilians at a high-profile event, or anyone who opens fire in general, should be condemned, regardless of ethnicity. Murder is murder, no matter how you describe it. The fact that the Vegas shooter was a white, middle-aged man does not give the media an excuse to lessen its descriptions of him. If he was black, they would have grilled him and said worse things than they did.

His skin color doesn’t make up for the fact that what he did was wrong. He had MULTIPLE rifles in his hotel room. He KILLED over 50 people and injured more than 500. Black or white, he was still a terrorist, plain and simple.

Acts of terrorism and gun violence can occur anywhere, even in the safest environment. This includes college campuses, where acts of terrorism are not taken lightly.

At any given moment, a student can go on a shooting rampage in a similar manner to the Virginia Tech shooting. And depending on the race of the shooter, the punishment they face will vary drastically. Even if a student doesn’t commit a crime, if they are black, they are generally the first to be accused.

There was an incident at Colgate University where a black student holding a glue gun was assumed to be an active shooter. Although not directly related to gun violence, it still shows how racism is still prevalent in the world and how we as humans assume the worst in people who fit a common stereotype.

Racial profiling and assuming that because a man is of a certain race or background, he is going to shoot up a place is beyond offensive and cruel. A person can’t be judged based on race and ethnicity. Especially on a college campus, the primary goal of students is to advance in their studies in order to graduate.

No student should miss out on that opportunity because someone else’s actions were blamed on them and therefore, a completely innocent student has to suffer the consequences. College is a learning institution, not a place for gun violence.