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
Sissies are a funny bunch...they believe in guns but are too much afraid to use one themselves.
To be a sissy one must believe that a dead and raped woman is morally superior to a woman with a gun and a dead rapist at her feet.
To be a sissy one must believe their dead spouse is better than them having killed the bad guy with a gun.
To a sissy a person is a “gun nut” if they own a gun but is a superman capable for amazing feats of heroism if they put on a badge.
To a sissy we must bans guns because of all the violence but if a person a wants a gun to defend themselves from that violence they are just a “nut“ and paranoid.
To rid ourselves of the violence of guns they want to ban guns and anyone not volunteering their guns must be shot down with the gun of a badged hero...just not them.
Sissies scream and holler about fascism but they want social programs and gun bans enforced by the lethal force of government guns. Go figure.
=-)
You were close enough, 10 points for Gryffindor.
The rationalizations of one of the cowardly, shadows of men, pre-Eloi breed.
This guy is an idiot !!!
So, to paraphrase Zell Miller, "What're they gonna use, spitballs?"
Jeez, what a moron. And these are the folks running academia these days.
Thanks for the pic!
I find it interesting that these pantie boys think anyone that wants to exercise their 2nd amendment rights is some how mentally or emotionally deficient however anyone that is so gun phobic they scream at the thought of anyone caring a concealed firearm is stable, mature, and intellectually superior.
This guy & the people who agree with him are sheep.
Before that there was: Where is the "super MEGA-BARF alert"? I answered already. Read the thread. The title is too long even for a "barf alert."
Giving the bad guy what he wants ought to do it, right?
Hello?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No, I don't think anyone will ever reach Mr. Murphy.
His illiterate screed indicates that he will forever be locked into the typical leftist's spittle-spewing, facts don't count, I know this to be true, covering my ears and singling la-la-la - I can't hear you, mode.
Little Mikey will be one of the first to cry out “I wish I had a gun”, when the Islamic crazies start shooting his friends and relatives.
And of course, he will also be the first to try to hide behind those brave Americans who will be willing to fight back using the guns that metrosexuals like Mikey are trying to take away from them.
Mikey is a sick, sick, sadsack.
Nonsense. I won't be taking my own weapons to Heaven.
I'll gratefully accept whatever they issue me.
:-)
Sometimes they are your grandmothers, too.
It won't be 'free' but if you 'benefit' from the Bush 'stimulus' package you can buy one with debt levied on your grandchildren.
I will be investing my check of increasingly worthless FRN's into something that will hold value: firearms and ammo.($800 rifle and 1000 rds of ammo)
Understanding some of the guys around here and the Ann Coulter rule, I thought I’d better post one.
Getting it exactly backwards. The whole point is that since only the Low IQ Contingent is going to initiate a gun crime anyway, the concept that any potential victim might be carrying anything penetrates through even their pea brains and they won't initiate one. Guarantee them a disarmed public, and they are dumb enough to think they might be able to get away with something.
"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
Mike
Here are two ladies who says your full of sh!t.
Both Private citizens
Arae you strong enough to watch and respond
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f12XrQ6H0Og
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqDVBWcBy2g
Is this you?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7pGt_O1uM8
working on his degree in urinalism... i mean journalism...
Fools like this are the main reason why you should tuck that Walther in your belt and just shut the hell up.
Quietly exercise your concealed carry license, day after day, week after week, and just don’t tell a soul that you’ve got the goods. God forbid if the need should arise, but it might. Then, and only then, do you let people know there was a sheepdog in their midst all along.
Try not to let your jaws drop, but I’ve been doing this in the People’s Republic of Massachusetts for many years now. Quietly.
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