“What am I going to wear?”

“Who should I go with?”

“How much should I drink?”

All are reasonable questions students should ask themselves when planning to go to a party.

“What if I get shot?” is not one of those questions.

But following the events of this weekend, many students will begin questioning whether or not going out will be worth the price of possibly being shot and killed.

Travis Powell, a 22-year-old Chico State student, was shot and killed at a party on West Seventh and Oak streets on Saturday.

A fight broke out at the house party and spilled onto the streets.

Travis, along with three other unidentified individuals, was shot.

Two people were stabbed.

And one man was hit in the face with a glass bottle.   

Travis was the only one killed.

The suspects in the shooting are unknown.

Now, instead of bringing handles of Fireball to parties, some attendees are donning handguns.

What the hell happened?

Guns.

Guns happened.

Gun crimes are on the upswing in Chico.

A shooting occurred behind Walgreens in January, another at the Chico Hmong New Year festival in October and a drive-by shooting at the Alpha Gamma Rho house in April.

Up until this point, no student has been shot or killed — which is quite a feat.

Firearms kill more than 30,000 people each year in the United States.

And half of them are between the ages of 18 and 35.

That’s college age.

But shootings are preventable.

Instituting stricter gun control legislation would vastly decrease shootings.

And before conservatives get their panties in a twist, that would not mean taking all guns away.

A simple background check for every gun sale and preventing convicted felons from acquiring guns are both ways to promote stricter gun laws without prohibiting ownership for everyone.

Is preventing mentally ill individuals or criminals from purchasing guns that far-fetched and crazy?

No, it’s not — it’s obvious.

Students should not fear for their lives whenever they step out of the house.