Posted on 04/23/2008 2:10:11 PM PDT by neverdem
There are two types of "gun nuts," those who will say, "I'll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands," and those who insist on bringing their Mossberg 590 shotgun to heaven once the rapture comes.
Gun enthusiasts are an interesting crowd. They are our fathers and uncles, our neighbors and friends and often times they are our elected officials. Though there are many things wrong in this country, gun nuts often hold the gun rights issue as the No. 1 concern when heading to the polls to vote. They often have a pettiness toward their love of guns, too - using "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" as their MySpace profile song even though there are about two dozen better Beatles songs to choose from. And that's just the beginning of their pettiness.
But what has always irritated me most about many gun nuts is their audacity to use tragedies such as the Columbine and Virginia Tech massacres to promote their causes for fewer restrictions on carrying handguns in public.
President Paul Zingg agrees.
"Yes, students have right to protect themselves," he said. "Do I think they should carry handguns? No."
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech school shootings, a tragedy that occurred when a gunman shot and killed 32 people and then himself in a shooting rampage. As we commemorate this tragedy, we will probably hear twisted logic from gun rights groups such as the National Rifle Association to promote the idea of allowing students and professors to carry concealed handguns on campus.
They use Virginia Tech as fodder for what could have happened if more people were packing heat the day gunman Seung-Hui Cho shot so many people. Their logic goes something like this: If more students were armed on the day these events occurred, there would have been a bystander in the crowd who would have ridden in on a white stallion, weapons blazing, and valiantly stopped the gunman in his tracks. But disregard that this fairy tale fantasy relies on outside factors. One: This white knight would need the accuracy and the courage to perform such a feat. Two: The superhero would have to be miraculously standing within 100 feet or so of the gunman to be able to take him down. Three: This courageous gun owner would have to do all this without getting killed.
No evidence supports the idea that if someone in those tragedies had a gun the damage would have been prevented or minimized, Zingg said.
Gun advocates might counter by saying, "Well if he'd known more people had guns it may have prevented him from doing it." Are you kidding me? Did you see that videotape he sent NBC saying why he did it? That guy was crazy. He knew he was going to die that day and wanted to take out as many people as he could before he did it.
The bottom line is: Students and professors should not be allowed to have guns on campus. This myth that "an armed society is a polite society" is unproven and silly. I say, "an armed society is a paranoid and pompous society." Having to watch your manners and hope your gun is bigger than everyone else's is not an appealing way to go through life.
As for guns on campus, it's unsafe and unnecessary. Just because Second Amendment nuts want a Glock tucked in their pants 24/7 to overcome some mental insecurity, doesn't mean I should have to feel uncomfortable knowing a shot could accidentally go off while the teacher is lecturing.
Zingg said the key to safety on campus is "caring and vigilance for one another" and greater visibility of law enforcement. I agree.
The campus community needs to have more appreciation for University Police and respect officers "as not being rent-a-cops, because they're not," he said.
Living in a country that gives its citizens the right to bear arms has advantages and disadvantages, but arming students and professors isn't logical - it's ideological - and won't stop massacres such as Virginia Tech from happening again.
Mike Murphy can be reached at opinioneditor@theorion.com
LOL, Armed citizens didn’t prevent it did they?
If Republicans had cared as much about fiscal responsibility which is not demanded by the Constitution as they had about Guns which is protected by the Constitution then we wouldn’t be in this mess.
John
Their lack of logical, clear thinking always amazes me.
Lil mikey is still too naive of a tool to bring it...
he has been very well taught that when a 'shooter' enters the building, the best defense is the tornado drill position...ie, lining up along the wall with yer head between yer knees... then magically the BG will shew mercy ...
LFOD...
For all the 'determination' to do evil, with net postings and suicide note videos...the fact remains that he chose a target that was undefended, not a military base, leo office or even a bank building [which may have one armed defender]...
no he chose defenseless, lib minded youngsters, that he knew wouldnt even think to bum rush him en masse during a reload...
the DB media is the only real factor, giving notoriety to an otherwise un eventful existance, w/o which, he may have just quietly eaten a bullet and left a simple note...or done like a guy in Louisville a couple months ago and 'robbed' a bank with a pellet rifle, holed up til the calvary arrived, before charging leos in the parking lot...
LFOD...
Awesome posts one and all by G3, Travis and HH !
As we all know gun control only puts law abiding Americans in greater peril vs any level of mythical for the children or a safer society.
What makes these idiots think that CRIMINALS will follow THIS law THIS TIME ?!?!?!
Doom on em all.........they make it against the law to defend myself I go after the source of the problem. They will not like my solutions to their problems.
Stay safe ya’ll !!!!
Any good gun threads tonight?
I’m signing off, later!
Prayers DO WORK !!!
Wooo Hoooo !!
I’m not far behind ya...I’m whooped.
And I will be my last dollar that if Sweetie is happy then everybody is happy..........Nite !
This is more than a Second Amendment issue this is a human rights issue, It is you living right to protect you self form anything or anybody trying to harm you and your family. Because of the cosmetics of those so called assault weapons people were buying them during the ban. My brother and step father went out and bought one each for the reason I thought, They didn’t want someone telling them they can’t have those firearms. Think before you vote in November.
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