Violence has been a plague in every society since, well, societies first began. Cain slew Abel and it's been downhill since then. 

You're never going to completely end violence, and science fiction has had a field day looking at what all could happen if we really tried, but there are things we can probably do to mitigate the problem.

Unfortunately, far too many people figure that restricting people carrying firearms is the solution.

In Delaware, that seems to be the prevailing opinion of the state senators who just voted to restrict concealed carry on college property. As well as their colleagues in the House who already approved this travesty, to be fair.

The Delaware Senate passed legislation that would ban firearms from campuses and properties owned by universities. 

HB 311 passed the state House on June 13 and the state Senate on Wednesday. 

“In many states acts of violence have been committed with the use of firearms on college and university campuses that have resulted in both injury and death to students and faculty,” the bill’s synopsis claims. “This Act adds post-secondary colleges and universities to the Safe School Zone criminal offense so that any person who knowingly possesses a firearm . . . while in or on a college or university facility or campus may be charged with this additional offense.”

“Any person who knowingly possesses a firearm while in or on a Safe School Zone shall be guilty of the crime of possession of a firearm in a Safe School Zone,” the bill states. School Safe Zones include “[a]ny building, structure, athletic field, sports stadium or real property owned, operated, leased or rented by any public or private school including any kindergarten, elementary, secondary, vocational-technical school, college or university.”

Now, they're not wrong that many states have seen acts of violence involving firearms on college and university campuses. That's a simple fact and I'm not interested in pretending the truth isn't the truth.

What Delaware's senators are missing is that in every instance, those colleges and universities were gun-free zones.

That's right, the very law senators voted on because of these acts of violence were instances where that law failed completely and utterly.

The NRA criticized the bill, arguing that it would create confusion among concealed carriers who may not realize a given property belongs to a college or university. This is a fair criticism, but it only goes so far.

See, as I already noted like, five seconds ago, gun-free zones on campuses don't actually prevent bad guys from walking onto that campus and trying to kill as many people as humanly possible. Mass shooters are notoriously bad about that. You'd like those who want to massacre innocent people would be more law-abiding, but here we are.

What those laws do, though, is prevent law-abiding citizens from carrying guns.

So, should a mass shooter try to rack up a body count on a college campus in Delaware, should the governor sign the bill, then no one would be able to use a firearm to protect themselves because the people who are most inclined to do so also tend to be those who follow the law in the first place. That turns regular folks into sitting ducks, all for absolutely no return.

And it's not a hypothetical, either. Look at literally any mass murder on a university campus. I challenge you to find the law permitting people to carry on campus. I dare you to find it.  You won't because they don't exist.

So congratulations, Delaware lawmakers. You just introduced confusion for the good guys and empowered the bad guys to target colleges and universities.