“This is the dumbest idea I have ever heard.”

That’s coming from Orr’s Island resident Maureen Turgeon’s written testimony opposing a bill in the Maine Legislature requiring public colleges to allow firearms on their campuses. Turgeon also implored legislators to use their brains when considering LD 1370, An Act To Enhance Safety on College and University Campuses by Allowing Firearms To Be Carried on the Campuses of Public Colleges and Universities: “Please, use some sense and oppose this crazy bill.”

According to a report in Thursday’s Times Record, in the wake of the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings, Maine has allowed colleges to individually choose whether or not firearms are allowed on campus.

Currently, all public colleges ban firearms except in specific circumstances with proper permission. Sponsored by Rep. Richard Cebra of Naples, LD 1370, an “Act To Enhance Safety on College and University Campuses by Allowing Firearms To Be Carried on the Campuses of Public Colleges and Universities,” would change that, taking the decision away from colleges and replacing it with a statewide edict.

“Gun-free zones are premised on a lie: that murderers will follow rules, and that law-abiding concealed firearm carriers are a greater danger to those around them than crazed killers. That’s an insult to honest people. Sometimes, it’s a deadly one,” said Cebra in his written testimony to the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee.

“Given that gun-free zones seem to be a magnet for mass shooters, maybe we should be working to shrink or eliminate them,” he added. “As they say, if it saves just one life, it’s worth it.”

Cebra’s own false premise echoes decades of gun lobby nonsense that ignores the advice of experts, including those in law enforcement: That the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

Maine Community College President Derek Langhauser counters more diplomatically: “Our trustees understand that security planning is difficult, and that allowing gun owners to bring their guns to campus will make them feel safer. But the federal, state and municipal law enforcement officials who MCCS has consulted have advised that making it easier for people who have not been professionally trained to draw their guns in a crowded area because of a perceived threat will not make our colleges safer.”

As University of Maine at Farmington professor and Woolwich Selectwoman Allison Hepler noted that the question of guns on campus “is a decision best made at the local level.”

Cebra’s blanket solution threatens that local control. What’s worse, it’s a response to the threat of gun violence that loads the tinderbox with more kindling, seeming to dare someone to light a match.

According to a 2016 New York Times report, “In the United States, the death rate from gun homicides is about 31 per million people — the equivalent of 27 people shot dead every day of the year. The homicides include losses from mass shootings,” including the attack at an Orlando night club and the San Bernadino shooting. “And of course, they also include the country’s vastly more common single-victim killings.”

Yes, a gun is a tool, and like most any tool, can be deadly in the wrong hands. What differentiates guns, however, is that they are tools with a singular, deadly purpose.

Maine gun control advocates believe LD 1370 may die in committee, and if so, that will be a win for common sense.

However, similar legislation has popped up in other states, including Texas and Kansas. The concerted efforts by firearms fanatics in introducing extreme measures to promote an armed citizenry in Maine and elsewhere remains troublesome.

When it comes to LD 1370, we think any undecided Maine legislator ought to heed Turgeon’s advice: Please, use some sense and oppose this crazy bill.