The snow is melting quickly among the Wasatch Mountains. It’s a time I like to call “flip-flop” weather, a period when my true laziness can take effect in the form of not washing a sock until September.

It’s still a bit too cold to go shoeless, but I’m stubborn like the rest of the students at the University of Utah. Our campus is notorious for gun carriers. We consider campus safety in the same light as the arms race: the more guns around, the safer we’ll all be.

The state legislature recently tried to pass a law that would make it so weapons don’t even have to be concealed. It seems a large piece of metal under a coat is uncomfortable in flip-flop weather. Brighter minds considered the law a bad idea. Professors have enough worries without having to look at a kid scratching his forehead with a gun barrel.

I don’t feel safe at school. I consider education my religion, yet, while guns are not allowed in churches in the state of Utah, they roam free in classrooms. Since the Virginia Tech shooting, the university has set up a campus safety task force. So far, they are the equivalent of the students sitting in the back. We’ve heard nothing from them, and I’m not sure they’re paying attention anyway.

Some students in the Communication Department have come up with a cell phone text message plan as part of a research project. It would alert students during emergency situations, and would cost around $80,000 a year to instigate.

It is better than nothing. Our university needs to do more to make the students feel secure, regardless of the cost. After all, flip-flops don’t make much sense when you’re wearing a bullet-proof vest.