Santa Ana and Santiago Canyon colleges are in the process of arming their security guards; they will select 16 guards to undergo weapons training and further forms of screening.

This is a horrible idea. The answer to combating gun violence is not more guns, that actually exacerbates the situation.

Putting untested civilians in a policing role where they have to make split-second, life-or-death situations is only inviting trouble, especially when they do not have the power to arrest or detain.

A security guard isn’t trained to deal with armed problems, police are. The best option would be to take the allocated funds for the new program and strike a deal with the city police to have two to three cops patrolling the proximity and roads that run through a campus.

It’s a rare occasion when problems on a college campus need more than an average campus safety officer. While armed officers are a show of force, it is unneeded and excessive.

Way too often, these are the guys that either fail to act, overreact, or just plain react inappropriately. They are the ones most likely to be killed in a hold-up of a store or bank.

The Fullerton Police Department is a perfect example. Here the force has been fully equipped with body cameras, body armor, shotguns and assault rifles. They have the power to respond to any threat as long as it’s not a full-scale movie-style bank heist, in which SWAT would be required to save the day.

Now we all know Fullerton Police Department is recovering from their recent scandals, but even so, would you want to trust your safety to a partially trained security guard that isn’t sworn to protect the public?

Policing duties should be handled by police, regardless of what you think of them for past scandals; they have sworn to protect and serve.

The cops don’t need to patrol the campus the way the security guards do, just be in hyper proximity to it the way Cal State Fullerton’s sworn police officers are.

Ask yourself a question: would you feel safer seeing campus safety walking around with guns, or knowing that there were a few police cars dedicated to patrolling around and through campus roads?

There is no stopping someone dead set on coming to a school campus with gun violence in their heart, but there is a way to increase the odds of fewer people being harmed.

Leave protection to the police, it’s what they are there for.