John / Billybob
Fifty people were present when one customer pulled a gun and started shooting. Nine shots were fired, the last two going into the shooter, from another customer who was carrying a weapon. No one was killed.
Now, that’s gun control.
SWEET
This is the way the whole country was, when I was born (and I’m not yet 50 years old). So sad....
I have long appreciated your commentaries, and this is definitely being saved for future reference, mate! Great one!
—Harrisburg Area Community College — Pa.
I guess it’s true what they say about Pa. — Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, with Alabama in between.
<< there never has been, and never will be, a shooting like the one this week at Virginia Tech. There are plenty of guns in western Carolina. There are two universities and a college, where potential victims like those at Tech, can be found by the thousands. >>
With all due respect John, I challenge you to walk into a typical 9 am college class in Cullowhee or Boone, and find out if any of the students sitting there in class just happen to be packing at that moment in time.
I submit that chances are low anyone is.
BWWWWWWAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!! She's such a loser.
BTTT for some COMMON SENSE!!!!!
You said — “I live in western North Carolina, an area of the country in which there never has been, and never will be, a shooting like the one this week at Virginia Tech. There are plenty of guns in western Carolina. There are two universities and a college, where potential victims like those at Tech, can be found by the thousands.
But, we have a different culture, here. To my experience, more than half of all households in Carolina own multiple guns. More than a quarter of all the local trucks and vans on our highways are carrying guns, mostly handguns. And the people in Carolina who own those guns know exactly how to use them.”
Well, as I understand it, they also know how to handle and use guns in Virginia, too. I don’t think there’s a shortage of the same kind of people there, and I don’t think they are ignorant about them. [I’m not from Virginia, by the way...]
I looked carefully at your article, and unless I missed it — I *do not see* where you have addressed the issue of having “guns on campus” at these universities in North Carolina.
Are you saying that on your universities that people *are able* to have their guns in the classrooms and in the dorms, and thus, once the shooter got inside those classrooms, or a dorm building, that someone there would (or could) have taken him out? That’s what I would like to know...
Regards,
Star Traveler
John,
Your estimates are way off, probably based on old data. We’ve moved out of NC and are living in Virginia now.
Good article - well said!
Very, good, article. :)
GRNC Calls For Student Self-Protection Law
GRNC President F. Paul Valone issued the following press release this afternoon:
Contact: F. Paul Valone, President, Grass Roots North Carolina
Telephone: (704) 907-9206
E-mail: pres@grnc.org
Release date: April 17, 2007
GRNC Calls For Student Self-Protection Law
On behalf of its thousands of members and supporters, Grass Roots North Carolina expresses its profound sorrow and condolences to the victims and families of the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech.
Virginia Endangers Students
Ironically, in 2006 the Virginia General Assembly defeated legislation which could have prevented Cho Seung-Hui from murdering 32 students. HB 1572 would have enabled lawful Virginians with concealed handgun permits to protect themselves and others on college campuses within the state.
Said Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker in 2006: "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." (1)
Whether or not Virginia Tech administrators responded adequately in failing to lock down the campus following the first round of killings, school shootings over recent decades have demonstrated one indisputable reality: Police have neither the ability nor the responsibility to protect individuals from violent offenders.
Concealed Handgun Laws Deter Multiple Victim Homicides
Not coincidentally, the majority of multiple victim public killings occur in campuses and other locations where lawful citizens are prevented from keeping firearms for self-protection. Researcher John R. Lott, doing a sophisticated multiple regression analysis of such homicides, concluded: "The results...support the hypothesis that concealed handgun or shall issue laws reduce the number of multiple victim public shootings. Attackers are deterred and the number of people injured or killed per attack is also reduced..." (2)
North Carolina Must Act Now
GRNC calls upon members of the North Carolina General Assembly to act promptly to pass legislation similar to HB 1572, enabling faculty members, students and other concealed handgun permit-holders, who have proven themselves sane, sober and law-abiding, to protect themselves and others on college campuses throughout the state.
1. "Gun bill gets shot down by panel: HB 1572, which would have allowed handguns on college campuses, died in subcommittee," Greg Esposito, The Roanoke Times, January 31, 2006, available at:
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/wb/xp-50658
"Multiple Victim Public Shootings, Bombings, and Right-to-Carry Concealed Handgun Laws: Contrasting Private and Public Law Enforcement," February 27, 1999. John R. Lott, Jr. and William M.
Landes, The Law School The University Of Chicago.
-----------------------------
You may find your representative by going here: http://www.grnc.org/contact_reps.htm
You may write your federal congressman by going here: http://www.house.gov/writerep/
HEAR HEAR!!!
Do campuses in that part of North Carolina permit guns?
Southwest VA is very similar to Western NC regarding gun owners and people who carry. This happened at a college and people going to school tend to not carry weapons, they carry books. Even if it were legal for students and professors to carry concealed there, I seriously doubt any of them would have.
The real irony is that by Cho (or whatever his name was) exploding in anger and using a firearm rather than the friggen BOMB he was reputed to be considering or even a well thought out mass execution by arson (a method he also was reputed to dabble in) he very well may have INDAVERTEDLY SAVED many many lives! Now THAT is something we are not likely to hear on the news yet it’s probably the case! Let’s think just about the arson angle because that is something that no criminal law can do anything to limit (other than maybe las preventing SOME cases by simply keeping all known arsons in prison till they DIE) Cho liked the idea of locking exits, so what if he had engineered a very efficent highly cunsumptive fire in one or more dorm buildings that housed key targets? The dorms in question at 3:30AM are going to have how many sleeping? Hundreds?? Might not Cho have elected to use gasoline and some substances (materials purposely NOT mentioned)placed in the return air portions of the building’s HVAC system and in a way to consume and block exits as rapidly as possible ... how hard could that be for a bright college kit to figure out? Heck he likely could have disabled the alarm system too fo that matter and then as a crowning touch used the same trick he used in the gun murders which was to lock and chain the exits! HUNDREDS he might have killed if he didn’t have that gun available ... the gun allowed him an easier way to kill the next time he started really thinking and getting mad ... but heck without the gun he STILL was going to keep stewing, to keep thinking and to get madder and madder ... they say they are pretty sure he started one fire ... that may have been a little trial thing ... MAYBE he had been doing research into more effective methods arson? ya think? And the reports involving his interest in using a bomb sound totally in keeping with his mental state too I think ... how hard is a bomb to figure out? Especially for a bright college mind at a technical school? What does it take? Some fetilizer, some hobby fuse, a little bit of bang bang ... and/or any number of ignitables ... look at his WORDS! This boy was ANGRY! Every time he calmed down enough to think he probably just thought of more and more ideas of things he could do to lash out! But he got the gun and then he had a more simple route ... not the most efficient certainly but when he snapped finally he lost all reason ... MAYBE saving countless lives in doing so. Like said Ironic and something we will not likely hear on the evening news. Hey even the kids at Columbine were talking bomb were they not? And what is the most chosen way to kill US troops in IRAQ? Not with handguns obviously ... nope they use BOMBS!
The bottom line is that if we don’t direct our energies toward identifying the angry murderous types beforehand then sooner or later they ARE going to hurt somebody! My wife is in education and is so frustrated because there is NOTHING not a dang thing that educators can do at this time to bring individuals to the attention of law enforcement. I mean teachers and such can tell you with amazing accuracy who is going to be a threat... but they are not allowed to. It’s like not be allowed to help someone with a contagious disease before it kills them and others ... makes no sense to anyone who is victimized by these I can tell ya that!