Unarmed and Vulnerable

The Roanoke Times/ roanoke.com ^ | Thursday, August 31, 2006 | Bradford B. Wiles

[archy]

Unarmed and vulnerable

Bradford B. Wiles

Wiles, of New Castle, is a graduate student at Virginia Tech.

On Aug. 21 at about 9:20 a.m., my graduate-level class was evacuated from the Squires Student Center. We were interrupted in class and not informed of anything other than the following words: "You need to get out of the building."

Upon exiting the classroom, we were met at the doors leading outside by two armor-clad policemen with fully automatic weapons, plus their side arms. Once outside, there were several more officers with either fully automatic rifles and pump shotguns, and policemen running down the street, pistols drawn.

It was at this time that I realized that I had no viable means of protecting myself.

Please realize that I am licensed to carry a concealed handgun in the commonwealth of Virginia, and do so on a regular basis. However, because I am a Virginia Tech student, I am prohibited from carrying at school because of Virginia Tech's student policy, which makes possession of a handgun an expellable offense, but not a prosecutable crime.

I had entrusted my safety, and the safety of others to the police. In light of this, there are a few things I wish to point out.

First, I never want to have my safety fully in the hands of anyone else, including the police.

Second, I considered bringing my gun with me to campus, but did not due to the obvious risk of losing my graduate career, which is ridiculous because had I been shot and killed, there would have been no graduate career for me anyway.

Third, and most important, I am trained and able to carry a concealed handgun almost anywhere in Virginia and other states that have reciprocity with Virginia, but cannot carry where I spend more time than anywhere else because, somehow, I become a threat to others when I cross from the town of Blacksburg onto Virginia Tech's campus.

Of all of the emotions and thoughts that were running through my head that morning, the most overwhelming one was of helplessness.

That feeling of helplessness has been difficult to reconcile because I knew I would have been safer with a proper means to defend myself.

I would also like to point out that when I mentioned to a professor that I would feel safer with my gun, this is what she said to me, "I would feel safer if you had your gun."

The policy that forbids students who are legally licensed to carry in Virginia needs to be changed.

I am qualified and capable of carrying a concealed handgun and urge you to work with me to allow my most basic right of self-defense, and eliminate my entrusting my safety and the safety of my classmates to the government.

This incident makes it clear that it is time that Virginia Tech and the commonwealth of Virginia let me take responsibility for my safety.

link to story

[SuziQ]

Of course, that still leaves the problem presented by creatures like Cho, who are not American citizens and bring their own foreign brand of brainwashing to our shores when they come here.

Cho was 8 when he arrived in the States. If there was any brainwashing done, I suspect it was more like the home-grown brand prevalent in some of our public high schools, and especially our colleges. Likely he got a snoot full of it from his English classes, which are probably heavily into anti-Americanism, deconstructionist readings, and post-modernism. Throw in some Political Science classes of the modern variety, and you have a cauldron of nihilism in which these students are steeped. Most students have it roll off their backs, because they're just not into the political, but there are quite a few who will suck it right up. Those are the ones you see at the A.N.S.W.E.R. marches and other anti-war rallies.

[JCEccles]

You prefer mass slaughter of dozens by a lunatic over the possibility that a police officer might shoot a concealed carry student defending himself?

I don't. The vast majority of concealed carry permit holders are well-trained on how to minimize the risk you are worried about. One thing they won't do is run screaming wild-eyed from a building firing their weapons in the air.

[do the dhue]

Good post

Kennesaw GA passed a law that said every home must have a gun. They did this because the town was experiencing record break ins. Well, over night their crime rate dropped and stayed that way. I am not above offering Weaponology 101 to Freshman’s. I don’t think things would be as bad as you think. I think people would learn how to respect each other. Punks can pull guns on people who don’t have them, but they can’t pull guns on people who do. They don’t have the guts. Only a fool does.

In the old days we put those crazy people in insane asylums. Now we put them on Jerry Springer and the news. Put them where they belong and allow me to defend myself.

Did you know that gunslinger came from Hollywood? The word did not exist before the 1950s. People didn’t act like they did in the movies. People were polite. Why? Because the ol’ pilgrim just might bust a cap in your arse. You teach kids at a young age to respect a gun, they will respect it for life. My first black eye came from a 12 Gauge at the age of five. I have been shooting ever since and I have never kilt anyone. I have been plenty mad at people in the past (mostly Demarerats) and I ain't never bagged and tagged one. If I was in that classroom with a weapon, I would have severed his cerebellum from his brain stem and he would have dropped like a rock. And I guarantee you that if he thought that there was one weapon in that class, Cho would have never entered it with his bad attitude. Gun grabbin liberals have this all wrong. Most all people are smart enough not to pull a gun on someone who might have a gun.

If we teach weaponology 101 and teach our kids how to respect and protect themselves and others, the body count would be one. No, zero.

An armed Society is a polite society. Cho would not have walked in that classroom, if he thought the above young lady's were going to be there. He would not have had the guts to come into that classroom with his bad attitude.

It is easy for punks like Cho to walk into a room full of unarmed people and cut loose. It is much harder to pull a gun on people who just might be armed.

If you think there would be people shooting each other every time they got mad at each other, I will not agree with you. I have been around guns all my life. I have been plenty mad at people (mostly Demorats), and I have yet to bust a cap in a demorats arse. I think you would be surprised. I think most people are smart enough not to do something stupid to a armed person.

Sure, there will be a couple crazy people that will do some stupid crap, but your body count won't be 31. It will be more like one.

VT took the rights of their students away but not allowing them to protect themselves. So, that means VT should be responsible for their students safety. But even our Police on the streets can not protect me and mine. They will only draw a white line around my body and then go look for who did it. Allow me to protect myself. I can do it best.

[Joe Brower]

"Cho was 8 when he arrived in the States."

I didn't know that -- thanks.

"Culture of nihilism"... yes. And when mixed with the "culture of cowardice", a deadly combination.

[neverdem]

Keep guns, licensed or not, off campus (It's a little old, but guess where it's from.)

Your post generated this response in the Roanoke Times. The writer was living in Blacksburg when it was written. I wonder what she's thinking now?

[dirtboy]

Considering the original post, what do people think would have happened if these students had been armed and went running out of the building, weapons drawn, and met a bunch of heavly armed police?

Gee, like what actually happened with the perp having over an hour to shoot defenseless students would be an improvement over that?

[Kozak]

I know some will jump on me for this but I have a problem, again, with thousands of students carrying weapons on campus.

First it won't be "thousands". You have to be 21. You have to go to the trouble of getting a CCW which involves training and cost. Most won't carry a weapon every day or even most of the time. Better then a campus full of sheep waiting to be slaughtered.

[Petruchio]

I know some will jump on me for this but I have a problem, again, with thousands of students carrying weapons on campus. Considering the original post, what do people think would have happened if these students had been armed and went running out of the building, weapons drawn, and met a bunch of heavly armed police?

Thousands? No way dude. At the average of 1%, it would more likely have been about 250 to 260 on Campus.

Now, the the heart of this post. With all the training you go thru for CC, those who carry know they cannot "go Rambo" or "do a Dirty Harry". CC is for defense of a)self and to a lessor degree b) others around you. Odds are there would have only been 1 CC holder in any given classroom. The most likely use would have been to instruct others in the room to take cover, then take up a defensive position covering the door to prevent the killer from entering the room. This gives everyone in the room a reasonable degree of safety while limiting exposure to hostile fire. A CC holder would then stand down when Police announce at entry and orderly clear the room. Simple.

This is the thing to remember: When you carry, you DON'T have a right to hunt the bad guys. If you go hunting the bad guy, then you are now a shooter that needs to be taken out. You become the bad guy. Defense, only defense.

[Mini-14]

Wayne LaPierre of the NRA would like to have individuals with concealed carry licenses thrown in jail if they step onto school grounds.

http://www.nra.org/Speech.aspx?id=6043

First, we believe in absolutely gun-free, zero-tolerance, totally safe schools. That means no guns in America's schools, period ... with the rare exception of law enforcement officers or trained security personnel.

We believe America's schools should be as safe as America's airports. You can't talk about, much less take, bombs and guns onto airplanes.Such behavior in our schools should be prosecuted just as certainly as such behavior in our airports is prosecuted.

Of the 6,000 young people the President acknowledges were caught with a gun at school during the past two years, we believe all of them should have been prosecuted. But the truth is that only 5 were prosecuted in 1997 and just 8 in 1998. That's not zero tolerance.

The National Rifle Association believes in no unsupervised youth access to guns, period. We have always supported holding adults responsible for wilfully and recklessly allowing access to firearms.  Just as every kid should have a guardian who knows where he is and keeps him safe, every firearm should have a guardian who knows where it is and keeps it safely stored.

Nancy Pelosi says "Jump", and NRA says "How High?"

What happens when the NRA jumps higher and higher for Nancy?  Well, you might just see a situation in the U.S. where you have to get a permission slip from a psychiatrist to own a gun.  Don't believe it?  Learn how similar techniques were used to transform England in a matter of decades.  This is a long article, but it's quite educational.
 
Here's a message someone posted at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wa-ccw/message/42293

I attended the 1999 NRA convention in Denver where LaPierre gave that speech. I remember that to his statement of support for "gun-free schools" he received a response of silence and weak applause.

I think the membership back then clearly realized the folly of such an approach. I would hope that the NRA would now show some backbone and renounce such stupidity.

For some reason, I'd guess mostly political, they can't admit that if concealed firearms carried by responsible, law-abiding people is a good thing, then it's a good thing almost anywhere and everywhere.

[Dave Olson]

what do people think would have happened if these students had been armed and went running out of the building, weapons drawn, and met a bunch of heavly armed police? ... The police would not have know who these kids were.

This doesn't happen anywhere else where people are allowed to be armed. Why would a college campus be any different?

Besides, if someone there had been armed and confronted the killer, it is more likely that the whole thing would have ended long before the police even got there.

[Eaker]

“Deep” reference indeed.

Thanks for the hot sauce and chips!

[Tijeras_Slim]

You’re welcome! Always good to show the Texans what they’re missing! ;)

[Eaker]

I was at the range this past Saturday with about thirty FReepers including my wife and daughter. There was about another hundred shooters there too.

There were over one hundred different guns present including a few full auto in our group alone.

NOBODY was hurt; all had a great time and that little bastard Cho did NOT show up there wanting to shoot folks.

It was definitely a gun rich and safe environment.

You appear to be postulating that not owning a fire extinguisher will prevent fires.

It will not.

[patton]

Personally, I have a number of fire extinguishers...and guns.

[Tijeras_Slim]

If I had as many fire extinguishers as I have guns, I could ride out the bombing of Dresden in cool comfort.

[luvie]

One of those smart kids who happened to be armed would have taken that creep out way before he had killed 32 people, that’s what would have happened!

People who have concealed handgun licenses are not the types who run around just flailing a gun in the air in panic...they are knowlegeable about gun safety and how to put a bullet where they want it.

[mylife]

Hell.

i’m armed right now.
Ypu got a problem with that?

[blackie]

We are responsible for our well being!!

An Armed Citizen Is A Safe Citizen!!

[Eaker]

Personally, I have a number of fire extinguishers...and guns.

You don't wave your fire extinguisher when there is no fire so why would you wave your gun when there was no threat?

Oh, you wouldn't.

Ironically, CHL owners have more experience in fire extinguisher use, first aid, CPR, basic survival, and crowd control than non-owners.

We are about safety not destruction or death. Sheep Dogs stop wolves not sheep. We protect the sheep even when they don't know it and don't appreciate it.

[thackney]

Do you ever wonder why mass shooting like this only occur at places where nearly every one else is unarmed and never hear about them at places like a gun show?