I am puzzled by the expectation that universities bear the entire burden of improving campus security in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre. The job of the university is to provide an education for its students, not to shield them from mass murderers.

The ultimate responsibility for protecting students lies with the local police, and it is they who should bear the lion’s share of the cost of implementing safety upgrades called for by the Virginia Tech tragedy. That would require taxing local residents somewhat more heavily, but so what?

As things stand now, residents of college neighborhoods already benefit from the additional security provided by universities’ private police forces, free riding on universities’ security largess at what is ultimately student expense.

Here at the University of Chicago, I feel safe largely because my tuition dollars help to equip the largest private police force in the United States.

The University has also implemented token measures in response to the Virginia Tech killings, such as a University-wide alert system. I have read about most of these upgrades, but can no longer remember — and that is precisely the problem.

The fact that I am not even aware of the upgraded security measures likely means that it is just as easy for me or anyone else to burst into a crowded lecture hall with weapons in hand and rain bloody death on unsuspecting students as it was a year ago.

That it is the way it must be, if the University is to feel like a place of learning rather than a military installation. Where there’s a will, there’s a way; hardly any amount of obstacles we put in the path of a determined killer is likely to budge him from his course. External barriers aren’t the answer. The best response is to erect mental barriers in the mind of the potential killer in order to reduce the incentives to attempting mass murder.

Allowing guns in the classroom is one such disincentive; making a potential killer doubt even slightly his ability to overpower a room of students, avoid prison and end his life on his own terms, would put a tremendous chill on his bloodlust.

The police might even consider training a small number of responsible students to carry handguns and use them to save lives in case of an emergency. That of course might increase less responsible students’ access to guns.

But as the Virginia Tech tragedy made all too clear, the political realities of gun control in this country mean that it is already easy for just about anyone to obtain the tools of mass murder.