Some startling news from the Midwest:

A gunman opened fire in a lecture hall on the campus of Northern Illinois University, and more than a dozen people were reported injured.

WBBM in Chicago reported that a man with a shotgun began shooting in a lecture hall, and the (DeKalb) Daily Chronicle reported that police said on a scanner that the man had a shotgun and a pistol.

CNN is reporting 18 people, MSNBC reprots 15. 

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.

The number of murder victims this year in my beloved city of Philadelphia climbed to 264 over the weekend, keeping the city well above pace to break last year’s mark of 406. In Philly most folks are united in lobbying for stronger gun control laws, but local politicians are essentially powerless since legislators at the state and federal level are beholden to the powerful gun lobby.

Is there a link between being in a frat and popping a cap? That’s the question some are investigating after a Yale fraternity brother allegedly fired a handgun inside the Beta Theta Pi house last week, leading the Yale Police to discover he was in possession of two illegal assault rifles and nine other firearms.