- It's now the day after. The initial shock has worn off
and now we set out to digest as much of the news coming from Virginia
Tech as we can. Predictably, the usual suspects are already out from
under their beds and making quite a bit of noise. Usual suspects? Number
one on that list would be the anti-Second Amendment crowd .. the gun
control lobby. Actually, they didn't wait until today .. they were pounding
the media payment by mid-afternoon yesterday. Another group of usual
suspects is a rather new breed. I don't think they have an actual name
yet. Blamesters comes to mind. They see a tragic event and the immediately
set out to assign blame. As soon as they've figured out who they think
is responsible, they start calling for resignations or firings.
-
- Blame? The person responsible for the shootings yesterday
was the man with the gun. We're still waiting for an identity, though
I don't know what good that's going to do.
-
- First, let's deal with the blame game. More Virginia
Tech students would be alive right now if... students had been kept from
going to class after the first shootings there were stricter gun control
laws people with concealed carry permits were allowed to carry guns into
Virginia Tech dorms and classrooms
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- Toward the end of yesterday afternoon a common theme
seemed to have developed in the media. Who do we blame for this? The
focus seemed to be on the campus administration and security. The issue
was the two hours that separated the first shooting from the second.
Two students died in the first shooting. Campus authorities believed
(apparently correctly) that this was a domestic situation and that there
was no further threat to other students. There were also reports that
police had "a person of interest" in custody. Other reports
were that a gunman was in custody. Two hours later the shootings occurred
in Norris Hall and 31 more people were killed.
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- Now we have parents demanding that the president of Virginia
Tech be fired. Why wasn't the entire campus locked down? Why didn't
all students know that there was a shooter lose on the campus? Well just
how are you going to accomplish that? I've heard a lot of talk about
email. Do you think that every student on that campus was sitting at
a computer at that time reading their email? Many were walking or driving
to classes. Maybe they could have used text messages on cell phones.
Would that work? And why would the administrators do this when they
had no reason to believe that there was any further threat to the other
students? Hindsight is perfect, isn't it. So why don't we fire the administrative
staff of Virginia Tech for not possessing that wonderful quality.
-
- Amazing, isn't it? Guess what? We don't live in a perfect
world!
- The proper course of action here is to figure out how
this tragedy might have been averted, not to go hunting for the scalps
of college administrators who, in all likelihood, took every reasonable
step they could think of to contain this situation after the first shooting.
-
- Perhaps we're still feeling empowered after the Imus
lynching last week. Hey .. that felt good! Let's get some more rope
and go get some more!
-
- This "blame and fire" response is absurd.
You have one psychopath with a gun who wanted to kill people. How in
the world do you stop him on a college campus where the killer and a few
security officers are the only ones with guns?
-
- And that brings us to the subject of .......
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- Gun Control
-
-
- This is undoubtedly the worst school shooting, high school,
college or otherwise, in the history of our country. There are some facts,
however, about some of these school shootings of which you probably are
not aware. Do you know, for instance, that at least three shootings in
high schools were stopped by civilians with guns?
- Civilians, not law enforcement. In one case a civilian
was traveling past a school when he saw children running from the building.
One told him that there was a student inside shooting people. The civilian
pulled his gun, ran in side, and confronted the student.
- The student put down the gun and surrendered. In another
case a high school vice-principal heard that there was a student in the
hallways with a gun. He sprinted a half-mile to his car. He had a gun
in his car so he had to park off campus. He then sprinted back with the
gun to confront the student. Lives saved.
-
- There have been many other cases where civilians with
guns have prevented further carnage at the hands of killers. The media
isn't fond of reporting these episodes because they don't contribute to
the cause of gun control.
-
- The point here is that you are never ever going to get
the guns out of the hands of those who want to use them for carnage.
Never. In all the years of press releases and statements from the Brady
anti- gun organization there has never been one single gun control plan
presented that would take the guns out of the hands of criminals.
- This is the oddity of gun control. Only law abiding
people are going to abide by gun control laws. Criminals are not. The
anti-gun lobby, and that includes much of the media, will never give any
fair coverage at all to the people who use guns to save their own lives,
or the lives of others.
-
- Now here's something that I have yet to see reported
in the mainstream media. Earlier this year the Virginia General Assembly
failed to act on House Bill 1572. The citizens of Virginia are permitted
to carry concealed weapons if they get a proper permit from the state
government --- unless you are on a college campus. This bill would have
allowed college students and employees to carry handguns on campus ---
with appropriate permits, of course. It died in subcommittee. After
the bill was thrown out up steps Larry Hincker, a spokesman for Virginia
Tech, the site of today's carnage, who says "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."
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- So .. how safe did these students and faculty in Norris
Hall feel yesterday?
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- Now nobody can say for certain, but if it had been legal
for students, employees or faculty members with permits to carry guns
on the campus, is it at all possible that there might be some students
alive today who didn't make it through the carnage? Do you think the
actions of the Virginia General Assembly stopped the gunman from getting
his guns and carrying them to the campus? Of course not.
- Reports are that the guns had their serial numbers scratched
off.
- The were acquired outside of the normal channels of commerce
and illegally carried to the Virginia Tech campus. The law meant nothing
to the shooter. It meant something to the victims though, and perhaps
that's why there wasn't one person anywhere near the shooter with a gun
that might .. just might have been used for self defense.
-
- There are those out there who think that allowing people
to carry a concealed weapon on a college campus is an absurd idea. Why
so?
-
- Just how is a college campus that much different than
our society as a whole? Diverse people living together in common environment
pursuing different goals. Where's the big difference? What is so special
about a college campus that students should not be allowed to own firearms?
What if some student in the dormitory had a gun? What if he heard the
argument in an adjoining room and had accompanied the student advisor
when he went to quell the disturbance? Could that student with a gun have
stopped this carnage before it even began?
- We'll never know. But is there anyone out there who
can say for a certainty that the day might have played out quite differently?
-
- Some of the less educated will come forth with lines
of thought like "We don't want to return to the wild, wild west."
Why not? What research have you put into your clever little "wild
wild west" line?
-
- Do you know anything about the actual crime rates in
the so-called wild west? Would you be surprised to learn that the crime
rate in what we now refer to as the "wild wild west" was actually
lower than it is in most American cities now? And why would that be?
Because people were armed, for one thing. People were armed, and the
bad guys knew that people were armed. Tell me ... just what chance do
you think a lone gunman would have had in those days in lining up people
against a wall and then calmly picking them off one by one.
- No ... I'll tell you. Slim to none. Oh he might get
off a shot or two, but by then he would be the object of some rather intensive
target practice.
-
- And let's talk about people with concealed carry permits.
Do you think they're dangerous? Do you think they're just wandering
around ready to pull their gun and start shooting at the slightest provocation?
Again .. check the statistics. People with concealed carry permits are
among the most law abiding people in the nation.
-
- Oops ... another little preconception shot to hell, so
to speak.
-
-
-
-
- Let me ask you another question. In fact, let's set
up a hypothetical situation. You're in a class full of people at a university.
Let's say that there are 30 people in that room. A predator with a gun
walks through the door. He shoots the professor, kills him. He then
takes the remainder of the people in the room and lines them up against
a wall. He then walks up to the first person and shots them in the head.
Now ... let me allow you to change the scenario. We can freeze-frame
this situation while you make a decision. Your decision is this: You
can put a gun into the hands of one student or a professor in that room,
or you can leave things exactly the way they are. What are you going
to do? Come on now, let's have it. Which way do you want it? Do you
want the predator to be the only one in the room with a gun? Or would
you like to have at least the fighting chance that would result if one,
maybe two of your classmates had a firearm.
-
- Now believe it or not, there are people out there (we
generally call them liberals) who would say; "Oh no, I don't want
anyone else to have a gun! They might try to shoot the killer and innocent
people might get caught in the crossfire!" Well you can try to find
a rational basis for that argument from now until pigs fly, and you will
fail. There is no rationality in that argument. It's an argument based
in mindless hysteria.
-
- Let's couch the argument a bit differently. Let's say
you are the parent of a college student. You get a call from the campus
police saying that your child is being held hostage in a classroom on
the campus. The hostage-taker has a gun and has already shot one student.
The police tell you that they have developed a plan whereby they are
going to be able to sneak a gun into the hands of one of the students
in the classroom, a student known to the police to be proficient in the
use of a handgun. Before the police can take this step they need the
unanimous consent of the parents of the students in that class. While
you're thinking it over the hostage-taker executes another student. OK
... your decision. What do you say?
-
- Are you going to say "No, I don't want any of those
students to be armed. I don't care how qualified they are with a gun."
Or are you going to allow the gun to be passed to the student.
-
- Now if your answer is that you would allow the gun to
be passed to the student, they please explain your rational for the position
that the student in question should not have been permitted to have a
gun in the first place with a concealed carry permit? You may have difficulty
in understanding this, but it really is rather difficult to arm these
students after the fact. And insofar as the shooter is concerned ...you
do understand that there is no way in hell to have prevented him to come
on to that campus with guns once he made up his mind to do so, don't you?
-
- Here's another question for you to ponder. What if the
Virginia legislature had passed HB 1572 and it had been signed into law?
Then the shooter would have known that there was a strong likelihood
that there would be some students, professors and administrators on the
campus with a gun. Is there any chance at all that this might have caused
the shooter to set aside his plans for carnage? Can you say for a certainty
that things would have played out as they did?
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- Lambs for the slaughter
-
- One more thing. I have a question here. No answer ..
just a question. Why didn't some of these students fight back? How in
the hell do you line students up against a wall (if that's the way it
played out) and start picking them off one by one without the students
turning on you? You have a choice. Try to rush the killer and get his
gun, or stand there and wait to be shot. I would love to hear from some
of you who have insight into situations such as this.
-
- Was there just not enough time to react? Were they paralyzed
with fear? Were they waiting for someone else to take action? Sorry
.. I just don't understand.
-
- And one more thing
-
- I've heard many students being interviewed by the media
since yesterday's shooting. They are all very articulate and impressive
in the face of this horrible incident, but none more impressive than a
student named Jamal. Jamal is from the West Bank. A Muslim. A Palestinian.
I heard him interviewed a few times on CNN. A very impressive young
man indeed.
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- Finally ...
-
- Everyone associated with the show wishes to express their
deepest condolences to the families and friends of the students who lost
their lives yesterday at Virginia Tech. I have a close friend who's
son attends VT. Even though he knew that his son was safe, I could hear
the emotion in his voice yesterday when I talked with him.
-
- There is no way we can understand the anguish that accompanies
the loss of a child-- especially under senseless circumstances such as
this. We are very sorry for your loss.
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- http://boortz.com/nuze/200704/04172007.html
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