The U.S. Supreme Court has made the Second Amendment clear: Americans have the right to bear arms. This doesn’t mean, though, that Americans have the right to return fire.

Maine’s public colleges, right now, can set policies on gun control. Yet as public institutions, these policies may fail in legal challenges against the crystalline Second Amendment. Rep. Peggy Rotundo of Lewiston has put forth legislation to give college policies teeth. The proposal would not apply to private institutions.

The idea is sound. Colleges are entrusted with developing and executing a litany of policies for the safety of their students, faculty and staff. Controlling the presence of firearms on campus is crucial for this duty and the practice should not exist under dubious legal standing.

This isn’t to say the Legislature – which controls funding for the colleges, after all – should decide which firearms policies they should, or should not, enforce. Rather, colleges should be given the legal leeway to decide which policies are appropriate for their campuses.

Rotundo’s bill would remove the uncertainty around these policies, by having the Legislature empower the universities to make their choices. This may rankle those on the side of gun rights, given the inspiration for the legislation: high-profile shootings at colleges elsewhere that cost many innocent lives.

Outrage is a natural reaction to these tragedies, which can lead to widespread adoption of fallacious arguments, this one chief among them: If students were armed, incidents like these wouldn’t happen, because campuses would be safer and fire, if it comes, would be returned.

That’s a one-in-a-million chance, in our opinion. The more likely scenario, if guns are allowed on campuses – or if policies controlling them are feeble, as feared – is that their presence won’t make anyone feel safer, while becoming a dangerous element in a difficult environment.

If the primary reason guns should be allowed on campus is the prospect of rampage, there are bigger problems afoot. This is another reason for public colleges to be empowered to pick the right firearm policies for their students, faculty and staff.

And, if it’s challenged in court, have it stick.