By Denise Davis
Just two days after the University of Louisville commemorated 9/11, another occurrence resembling an act of terrorism affected students. On Sept. 13, at Dawson College in Montreal, Canada, a lone gunman opened fire on unsuspecting students, killing one and wounding 19 others.
This leaves me to question what the world is coming to. Judging from recent events, we certainly should not take our safety on campus for granted.
Though the incident was far away, the aftermath reverberated throughout college campuses everywhere. It was not long after the tragedy that reports started streaming in about the shooter, identified as Kimveer Gill, and his online blog. This blog, according to news clippings, contained such statements as, “life is like a video game, you’ve got to die sometime,” and an admission that Gill desired to “die in a hale of gunfire.”
Jordan Peterson, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto said “Gill did not have a history of violence. Rather yet, he had a detailed plan, which is the best predictor of suicide.”
The revelations this brings in these cases provide little, if any, comfort to the lives affected by the shooting. Perhaps the reality of this situation is to be aware that a blatant act of violence can happen anywhere at anytime, including here at U of L. A question that keeps surfacing in the minds of many students is how a community protects itself from this type of tragedy repeating itself on our campus. But, as a sad reality, there is probably not a foolproof plan of action with the exception of resorting to agoraphobia-style tactics.
This is tempting, especially when Peterson said, “Why Dawson?” Perhaps it was chosen because the students were young, attractive, intelligent and full of promise. Thus, Dawson created media frenzy. However, before students go out and bombard the surplus store for bulletproof vests, we must have a little faith in U of L’s Department of Public Safety (DPS). Although there are no specific guidelines posted on the DPS Web site pertaining to this type of occurrence, there is program in place that remotely applies to the situation. This program is called Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). According to the Web site, “CPTED strategies enhance facility security through design and use of space; and they are generally considered more appropriate to an academic setting since they tend to heighten awareness, expose criminal behavior and engender a higher level of personal comfort for the building occupants.”
Hopefully, whether or not the positioning of campus buildings and landscapes at U of L will provide adequate safety to students in a firearm incident is something we will not have to find out. For now our primary course of action should be to carry on with our lives, pay close attention to those around us, and commemorate another sad September day for our fallen comrades in Montreal.
Denice Davis is an opinion columnist for The Cardinal. E-mail her at opinion@louisvillecardinal.com.
