In response to your Dec. 6 editorial “DPS Should Be Armed,” the issue is not whether or not DPS officers are competent to carry firearms. The issue is the competency of those they are protecting.

Let’s face it. Young adults can be foolish. And it’s foolishness that often gets them into trouble.

Should DPS officers carry guns, the result of such foolishness could get them killed.

What happens when a DPS officer pulls over a young person for suspicion of drunk driving?

The incoherent young person gets out of the car and reaches for his cell phone to call who knows who.

Does the officer know that it’s just a cell phone inside the driver’s pocket?

Rather than risk his own life, the DPS officer chooses to shoot. Now that’s what I call a crisis. And if you think this scenario could not happen, it has.

Within a matter of one week, two young people in two separate incidents lost their lives in Chicago when they reached for cell phones.

This is just one example of what could happen. There are countless others.

It’s not “dumb luck” that a major crisis hasn’t occurred at Iowa State despite DPS officers who patrol unarmed. It’s a combination of education, economics and demographics.

Ames is a low crime environment, and the crime that does occur isn’t solved with a gun.

Don’t make college students pay with their life for a foolish act —which in all likelihood would be an eventual scenario if DPS officers are permitted to carry guns.

Kris Fettkether

Alumna

Chicago