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To: nevergore
He knew the rules of employment

The story says the no gun policy was a NEW one and that he did NOT know about it.

The issue is not 2nd ammendment rights but property rights

Isn't your own car considered your private property? Most states ALLOW a law-abiding citizen to have a gun in their home, place of work, and VEHICLE (even without a concealed carry permit), because this is considered having a gun on/in your own private property.

There have also been MANY instances of a teacher, administrator, employee running out to a parking lot to retrieve a firearm to stop an assault by an armed criminal/crazed attacker (the law school in Virginia, a few years back, is one example).

Employers should realize that not only is an armed society, a polite society - but so is an armed workplace, a polite workplace. Employers should also realize that criminals and crazies will ALWAYS break the law and/or company policies to take a gun ANYWHERE they want. Only armed law-abiding employees with ready access to firearms can stop these types of people.

LIFE or DEATH issues, particularly regarding an individual's God-given right to self-defense, and the means to effect such a defense, should trump an employers ability to dictate what you can or can not have in your pivately owned vehicle in the PARKING LOT.

I also think the rules, regulations, and laws that say no one can have a firearm within 1000 feet of a school, or take a firearm onto a federal facility or have one in a ntional park, etc., among other places now restricted - are UNCONSTITUTIONAL and assinine. We need to go on the attck and get all of these anti-gun laws/rules/regs changed.

34 posted on 12/11/2004 7:13:58 AM PST by DocH (Release ALL your Navy records AND your private journal Kerry!)
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To: DocH
I also think the rules, regulations, and laws that say no one can have a firearm within 1000 feet of a school, or take a firearm onto a federal facility or have one in a ntional park, etc., among other places now restricted - are UNCONSTITUTIONAL and assinine. We need to go on the attck and get all of these anti-gun laws/rules/regs changed.

I've often wondered about that law. What if you LIVE with 1000 feet of the school, especially if you lived there before the school was built?? 1000 feet is almost a quarter of a mile and many schools are located in residential neighbornoods. In a subdivion with small lots, that could be 100-150 homes. Even some small towns have 30-50 schools.

139 posted on 12/11/2004 1:34:16 PM PST by Still Thinking
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To: DocH

Here is another story from:

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a248982.htm


If You Want to Stop a Killer, You Have to Speak His Language

In Targeting Guns: Firearms and Their Control (1997), Florida State University criminologist Dr. Gary Kleck observes that "most defensive uses of guns do not in fact involve shooting anyone.... More commonly, guns are merely pointed at another person, or perhaps only referred to ... or displayed, and this is sufficient to accomplish the ends of the user...."

The point was underscored on October 1st of last year after 16-year-old Luke Woodham, a student at Pearl High School in Pearl, Mississippi, allegedly stabbed his mother to death in her home, then opened fire on students at the school with a .30-30 rifle, killing two and wounding seven. Woodham was eventually apprehended by an assistant principal armed with a handgun. Had he instead escaped, he would presumably have continued his killing spree elsewhere. Madison County investigators subsequently revealed that they had uncovered evidence of Woodham's involvement in a secret satanic society which had compiled a hit list of other students and parents. Six other youths allegedly involved in the cult were subsequently arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

Assistant Pearl High School principal Joel Myrick, in addition to his school duties, is a commander in the Army Reserve with 16 years of military experience and extensive training in firearms use and safety. He recently recounted for The New American the events surrounding what he describes as the "most horrible thing I've ever seen in my life."

Luke Woodham opened fire in a large, open area of the school called the Commons. Myrick, who was in his office at the time, recognized the sound of a rifle and rushed to see who was shooting. He saw Woodham, and momentarily considered rushing him, but concluded that the gunman would simply shoot him. Woodham noticed Myrick, but did not fire at him, apparently because there were so many closer "targets" in the vicinity.

Myrick, whose .45-calibre handgun was locked in his truck, watched helplessly as Woodham approached a tree behind which three students were attempting to hide, shooting one and firing at the other two as they fled. It was apparent that reaching his own gun "was the only way I was going to be able to do anything."

When Woodham turned his back and began walking down the school's science hall, Myrick took advantage of the opportunity to run to his truck. His plan "was to get my gun and return to the science hall as quickly as possible, because I figured that Luke was going door-to-door shooting. As I came around the corner [with gun in hand] he was coming out of the hall." As Woodham left the building, "I saw him and yelled 'Stop!' and pointed my weapon at him. He turned and looked at me and kept walking, a little faster, toward his car."

Myrick did not shoot at that point because "I was probably about 50 yards away and it was a little too far. And with kids and cars leaving the area I just didn't have a safe backstop."

Myrick started sprinting toward the car as Woodham started to flee. "He was going away from me, and the tires were spinning as there was dew on the ground. He headed toward an intersection in the parking lot, where he was going to turn right and get out of there." Fortunately, another car (whose occupants were oblivious to what was happening) had stopped at the intersection stop sign, forcing Woodham to wait for an additional few seconds, which gave Myrick "time to get down to the road that Woodham was going to turn onto, and to cut him off." Myrick was positioned across the road from some woods, which provided a safe backdrop. "So when Luke appeared in front of me I was going to shoot him, because I had seen the bodies laying out there, and I'd witnessed him firing a .30-30 at short range into people. When he finally got to the corner, I was on the edge of the road and I had my pistol leveled at him, aiming directly at his head. When he saw me he swerved off the road in an attempt to put some distance between us. He got into damp grass and, not being a very good driver, spun out."

From about 30 feet across the road "I could see his white knuckles on the steering wheel," Myrick continued. "I ordered him to freeze and not move, then quickly approached the side of the car, looked in, and kept the pistol at his head the whole time. I told him, 'If you move, I'm going to shoot you.' And he didn't move. He kept his hands on the wheel. The rifle was laying on the passenger's seat, barrel down toward the floor. I reached down with my left hand and opened the door and told him to get out hands first, and he did. I told him to lay on the ground, and he did. And that was it."

Asked if he regretted not having a gun at the start, Myrick said that from hindsight, and considering his military and firearms training, he wishes he "could have had a gun stuck up under my coat so that at the first shot I could have moved directly towards the shooting and neutralized him. Perhaps that would have been it, and there would have been seven kids that would not have been shot, and possibly one less dead."

When asked if he thought Woodham would have continued his killing spree elsewhere had he escaped, Myrick asserted: "I think that there's no doubt about it. He had 36 rounds remaining and the gun was loaded." And it could have become very personal. Myrick believes Woodham may have been heading for a nearby junior high school which he had attended, where "there may have been some kids he didn't like, or some teachers he didn't like, probably more than at the high school. And my son was there."

* * *

The Pearl High School incident, perpetrated by a troubled youth who had violated a multitude of federal, state, and local gun control laws, was indeed a tragedy. But the only armed adult on the scene earned the gratitude of his community for precluding an even more disastrous outcome.

- R.W.L.

THE NEW AMERICAN - Copyright 1998, American Opinion Publishing, Incorporated

P.O. Box 8040, Appleton, WI 54913
Homepage: http://www.jbs.org/tna.htm
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WRITTEN PERMISSION FOR REPOSTING REQUIRED: Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. Address reposting requests to tna@jbs.org or the above address.


320 posted on 12/13/2004 9:24:36 AM PST by A. Patriot
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