As editors for this publication, we often work late nights and keep long, weird hours. We come to and leave from this campus at all hours of the night. We are some of the few people who know what this campus looks like as dawn breaks and as deep night comes, sodium lights casting eerie shadows across wide expanses of open parking lots. A lot of us like to joke that we “live” in the Hornet newsroom.

We don’t fear Sacramento State. We feel safe here.

The recent shooting deaths from across the nation are on everyone’s mind. The tiny lives lost in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14 resonate with the ones at Lone Star College in Houston, Texas on Jan. 22, the two in Phoenix, Ariz., on Jan. 29 and even here in Sacramento, where two people lost their lives in a bar fight on New Year’s Eve.

Those were good places, with good people. Those people probably felt safe, too.

There’s no question something has to be done to curb the deaths of innocent people, but we have, as a country, been divided into factions who each insist they are right and the other is wrong. People who want to limit access Americans have to guns are a threat to Second Amendment rights and freedom. Those who want to focus on bringing more mental health care and background checks to people who are buying the guns are missing the point: Everyone should be able to defend themselves and their families, and mental stability is a pointless factor in the equation.

In our campus of 30,000 people, we pass by thousands of school employees, students and auxiliary personnel on our way to class, to lunch, to learn. It is nearly impossible to predict when or if someone is going to break and take out their hurt, anger and anguish on somebody other than himself or herself.

As a school and as a society, we need to reach a place of equanimity: We need to recognize the problem, see both sides and come to a solution that is best and safest for the people – wives, husbands, children, siblings, parents – in this country and our school.

At Sac State, there should be courses on how to recognize and deal with a person’s mental stress offered freely and often. There is no reason to place fully the responsibility of recognizing someone in distress on the administration and faculty’s shoulders; as members of this campus, we all share a responsibility to one another to make sure we are all safe. Instead of Sac State’s Counseling and Psychological Services holding workshops on “goal setting and motivation” and “fulfilling your potential,” they should have workshops on what to do in case of a campus emergency and the best way to deal with someone who is not in a rational state of mind.

Talking about this is not sensationalizing it – it is addressing a problem that has recently and deeply harrowed our nation. Recognizing signs is key.

Fall semester saw author Andra Medea’s speech about handling students in crisis, but it was aimed towards administrators and faculty and not heavily advertised. Sac State needs to get the word out and provide the resources – not just to teachers and staff – to help everyone deal with a crisis situation should one arise on campus.

Though there is no clear solution, it is clear that whatever solution will come with both preventative and restrictive measures.

Our state has a significant number of gun control laws – more than any other state in the nation. California has eight new bills that regulate firearms entering the legislature this year, though more could be added before the Feb. 22 deadline. This does not take into account federal legislation, which our president has already set in action. While these measures may turn out to be effective, no restriction on gun ownership, purchase or sale will eliminate the chance of a mass killing happening again.

The best thing we, as a campus, can be is prepared. No one is psychic; no one expects anyone else to be able to see the future and stop something from happening.

But we have to be able to count on each other and do the best we can to prevent violence on our campus – our home.