Inside Higher Ed has a piece up today discussing student gun control activism in the wake of last semester’s Virginia Tech shootings. The piece profiles student-led groups--Protest Easy Guns and Students for Concealed Carry on Campus--that rally around different ends of the gun control debate.

But is gun control really the issue here? I’m all for responsible gun purchase and registry guidelines, but students could better leverage their influence by lobbying for mental health care reforms on their campuses. Andy Guess notes that task forces reviewing the killings “faulted university policies and pointed to the effects of confusing mental health laws” in addition to loopholes in gun laws—but students don’t seem to be picking up that cause.

Universities have a history of distancing themselves from troubled students, sending them packing or to the margins instead of supporting and helping them. Shouldn’t progressives be fighting for effective, accessible mental health care on campus? It’s a more comprehensive solution that gets at the root of the Virginia Tech situation—a student who felt that violence was an appropriate outlet on campus—and benefits students with a variety of mental health needs.