Posted on 04/18/2007 4:15:13 PM PDT by goldstategop
From the attacks of 9-11 to Monday's school shooting, after every mass murder there is an overwhelming urge to "do something" to prevent a similar attack.
But since Adam ate the apple and let evil into the world, deranged individuals have existed.
Most of the time they can't be locked up until it's too late. It's not against the law to be crazy in some jurisdictions it actually makes you more viable as a candidate for public office.
It's certainly not against the law to be an unsociable loner. If it were, Ralph Nader would be behind bars right now, where he belongs. Mass murder is often the first serious crime unbalanced individuals are caught committing as appears to be in the case of the Virginia Tech shooting.
The best we can do is enact policies that will reduce the death toll when these acts of carnage occur, as they will in a free and open society of 300 million people, most of whom have cable TV.
Only one policy has ever been shown to deter mass murder: concealed-carry laws. In a comprehensive study of all public, multiple-shooting incidents in America between 1977 and 1999, the inestimable economists John Lott and Bill Landes found that concealed-carry laws were the only laws that had any beneficial effect.
And the effect was not insignificant. States that allowed citizens to carry concealed handguns reduced multiple-shooting attacks by 60 percent and reduced the death and injury from these attacks by nearly 80 percent.
Apparently, even crazy people prefer targets that can't shoot back. The reason schools are consistently popular targets for mass murderers is precisely because of all the idiotic "Gun-Free School Zone" laws.
From the people who brought you "zero tolerance," I present the Gun-Free Zone! Yippee! Problem solved! Bam! Bam! Everybody down! Hey, how did that deranged loner get a gun into this Gun-Free Zone?
It isn't the angst of adolescence. Plenty of school shootings have been committed by adults with absolutely no reason to be at the school, such as Laurie Dann, who shot up the Hubbard Woods Elementary School in Winnetka, Ill., in 1988; Patrick Purdy, who opened fire on children at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, Calif., in 1989; and Charles Carl Roberts, who murdered five schoolgirls at an Amish school in Lancaster County, Pa., last year.
Oh, by the way, the other major "Gun-Free Zone" in America is the post office.
But instantly, on the day of the shooting at Virginia Tech, the media were already promoting gun control and pre-emptively denouncing right-wingers who point out that gun control enables murderers rather than stopping them. Liberals get to lobby for gun control, but we're disallowed from arguing back. That's how good their arguments are. They're that good.
Needless to say, Virginia Tech is a Gun-Free School Zone at least until last Monday. The gunman must not have known. Imagine his embarrassment! Perhaps there should be signs.
Virginia Tech even prohibits students with concealed-carry permits from carrying their guns on campus. Last year, the school disciplined a student for carrying a gun on campus, despite his lawful concealed-carry permit. If only someone like that had been in Norris Hall on Monday, this massacre could have been ended a lot sooner.
But last January, the Virginia General Assembly shot down a bill that would have prevented universities like Virginia Tech from giving sanctuary to mass murderers on college campuses in Virginia by disarming students with concealed-carry permits valid in the rest of the state.
Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker praised the legislature for allowing the school to disarm lawful gun owners on the faculty and student body, thereby surrendering every college campus in the state to deranged mass murderers, saying: "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."
Others disagreed. Writing last year about another dangerous killer who had been loose on the Virginia Tech campus, graduate student Jonathan McGlumphy wrote: "Is it not obvious that all students, faculty and staff would have been safer if (concealed handgun permit) holders were not banned from carrying their weapons on campus?"
If it wasn't obvious then, it is now.
bttt
Then it SHOULD be against the law to be "CRIMINALLY INSANE". If you've been diagnosed, and even if you are receiving medication, perhaps you should be under house arrest and under the care/observation of a legal guardian (who could be a family member).
We take pre-emptive measures against drunks (both drunk drivers and those who are drunk in public). The police don't wait for them to "do wrong", it is a crime merely to BE. And there is zero tolerance for those who break that law.
Why should someone be "excused" and left as a livewire merely because it is diagnosed that his brain chemistry is at fault (as opposed to alcohol or some other intoxicant)? Because it is "natural"?
Nature isn't always doing positive things.
Liberals hate it when people defend themselves. I have never figured out why.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Coulter is such a clown.
New Trommetter Times
July 24th, 2006
Gun owner stops killing spree
8 Employees Stabbed at Tenn. Grocery Store
A knife-wielding grocery store employee attacked eight co-workers Friday, seriously injuring four before a witness pulled a gun and stopped him, police said.
Elartrice Ingram, 21, was charged with nine counts of attempted first-degree murder, police said. The attack apparently stemmed from a work dispute, investigators said.
One more example of why we need to keep the 2nd Amendment and pass more Castle Doctrine laws.
Ingram, chasing one victim into the stores parking lot, was subdued by Chris Cope, manager of a financial services office in the same small shopping center, Memphis Police Sgt. Vince Higgins said.
Cope said he grabbed a 9mm semiautomatic pistol from his pickup truck when he saw the attacker chasing the victim like something in a serial killer movie.
When he turned around and saw my pistol, he threw the knife away, put his hands up and got on the ground, Cope told The Associated Press. He saw my gun and that was pretty much it.
Another fine example of an upstanding citizen protecting himself and others with the assistance of a trusty pistol. Gun beats knife every time.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Annie! Shame on you!
"this massacre could have ended a lot sooner" is better grammar.
Or were you dumbing this down for your liberal readers?
I saw NBC’s news broadcast tonight (because of the “Exclusive tape, etc.” that will drip out slowly over the coming months).
The reporters are still treating him as a “sad and lonely individual”. A victim.
He was evil. He plotted these activities. His dark persona was known to those around him and chilled them.
The police had said initially that they confirmed his identity from his fingerprints. Now we know that he’d been through the legal system in 2005.
So much for the “quiet individual with no arrests to speak of”.
The powers that be always know more than they want to let out. CYA rules the day.
This is a fairly mild piece by Coulter’s recent standards. When she has something concrete to say, she can really hammer away.
The deranged prefer unarmed victims. They are crazy, not stupid.
They’re heeeeeeeeere......
That quote is really something. “Stocks have reached what looks to be a permanently high plateau.” (some idiot, 1929)
We need media control more than any stupid gun control. This incident itself is preparing tomorrow’s mentally ill, sicko, loner sociopath to begin to covet the day when he will be remembered by everyone because he recieved wall to wall media coverage for at least a week.
Terrorists, starting with airline hijackers, turn violence into theater - all for the purpose of news coverage.
Why is the media such a willing accomplice? When will it stop?
Today, by a large degree, television news is much more lethal to innocents than guns. We must demand decency ...
Annie get your eye protection!
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