Tragedy at VT, but what lessons will we learn? I’m afraid, the wrong ones.
As of the time of this post, we are working under the following reported facts about the massacre today at Virginia Tech:
- 33 people are dead, including the gunman, apparently from a self-inflicted wound to the head.
- There appears to have been only a single gunman, who is reported to have carried two pistols with multiple loaded magazines.
- The chain of events start in a dorm room where the gunman reportedly shot his girlfriend and another person. Then, two hours later, he reportedly stormed into a classroom, chained and locked the doors closed, lined everyone up against the wall, and started executing them. Other reports say he didn’t line them up, but was calmly standing there shooting at people as they ducked for cover.
- Many students are angry about the fact that there was a two-hour break between incidents and the university failed to properly inform them of what had happened in the first incident. In fact, an email was being sent out about the first incident, just prior to the second incident occurring.
I kept saying “reported” above for a reason - the first stories of an incident are usually only 10% correct. People on the scene are usually operating under rumours as much as they are on facts. The true story of what happened there may take days, if not weeks, to finally emerge.
In the meantime, the knee-jerk reactions have already started - and the CYA quickly following. ABC News - even before it was known how the assailant was armed - was already talking about how much firepower large gun magazines can spit out and saying how this might not have happened if the Clinton assault weapons ban had been extended. Interesting that they only quote someone from the Brady Campaign in the article.
Never mind that an “assault” rifle wasn’t even involved. Also, never mind that even with the 10-round pistol magazines the Clinton law had required, the assailant would have just needed more magazines to do the same amount of damage.
Earlier this evening, I saw a local television news show throwing out one of those on-line polls with the question - “Should college campuses have metal detectors?” *Sigh* Yeah, like that would work. Basically, we’d have to put chain-link fences with established gates at varying intervals around the entire campus, manned and patrolled by armed guards, checking student IDs and backpacks at all the entrances. Can you imagine the line of students every morning for that business?
Allow me to throw out another theory, which runs decidedly counter to those above. What if good citizens throughout this country took a concealed-carry course, practiced with their weapon of choice, and carried their personal weapon on them wherever they went (with only a few exceptions)? Then, psychos like this guy, who obviously took great pains to plan and prepare for this assault, would be shot by said good citizens before he had the chance to take out a room full of people.
Or, if said psycho knew he would be walking into a room that may very well have many armed good citizens (who practice with their weapons), he might have decided it wouldn’t be a smart thing to do. An armed society is a polite society, don’t you know.
Just some thoughts.
UPDATE - Via Schlussel, it looks like the gunman was a Chinese national here on a student visa. There is speculation that several previous bomb threats may have been this guy testing university responses. If that’s true, this guy definitely was plotting this attack for some time and it wasn’t some impulsive action.
UPDATE - Again via Schlussel, a bill in the Virginia legislature would have allowed students to carry concealed on campus, but died in committee in January of last year.
Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. “I’m sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly’s actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus.”
Yeah, it sure did.
Category :
Uncategorized 
Tags :
Similar Posts:
- "Blame America first" crowd out in force following VT shootings
- Can’t trust their "battle buddies"
- Are terrorists targeting churches in America?
- Guardsmen overrun at the border
- Army admits to "errors" in Tillman case
- Gone shootin’
- Illegals demand cheaper college educations
- Iranian police crack-down against women continues
- Why aren’t we arming the people who watch over our kids?
- Obama used Blackwater for his own security?
Leave a Reply