Virginia Tech

The shooting that took place at Virginia Tech earlier this week has certainly worked all of us up into a frenzy.  I’ve been watching with sorrow in my heart for those who’s life will be affected by this and for those who lost their lives.  But more-so I will be sorry for those who lost their lives without fully knowing God before hand.   You can’t say enough that the end of your life might come well before you are ready, and why put off preparing yourself.  Friends, why put off talking to your friends about Jesus Christ and what the next life holds.  Because I guarantee it that many of those young people are not moving on to a better place.  You might say that I’m being callous, but I have to speak truth here.

It remains, and will always remain, that man is sinful.  It’s not wrong to ask what happened, and what can we do to try and prevent this in the future.  But if you think that you’re going to solve this problem, that you can prevent all future school shootings just by changing some policy here and there, well, you’re going to be disappointed.

I’ve been reading around, and I’m not surprised that it got so politicized so fast.  I’m basically in the camp, and this is preexisting this incident, that gun control, for the most part, does not work the way that people intend it to work.  Virginia Tech had the strictest law you can enact: no guns allowed.  Period.  And they still had a shooting.

But the numbers for gun-happy America aren’t really all that bad compared with the rest of the world, and in some cases are quite a bit better.

It’s also pretty evident that gun laws typically prevent law abiding and licensed gun owners from carrying their guns around, but the crimes and murders are committed by law-BREAKERS.  I have no problem allowing law abiding citizens to carry their guns around.  Heck, let them on high school campuses too. 

For the most part, the people who have been political about this have been conservatives.  It’s not that I don’t agree with them, it’s that the left has been pretty cold on this issue.  The national temperature is moving away from gun control and the left has been sensing that for the last 8 years.

Had Gore won his home state of Tennessee, Clinton’s home state of Arkansas or the Democratic state of West Virginia, he would not have needed to win Florida in order to gain the presidency. But he lost them all. And guns had a lot to do with it

Democrats don't want to talk about it, desperately.  Republican candidates who were sympathetic to gun control have been changing their tune (just listen to Giuliani, who was very gun-control while mayor of NYC, and Mit Romney joined the NRA just last August).  We keep seeing these tragedies, but most people are noting that as restrictions grow, the incidents keep happening anyway.  Such is the foul state of men's souls.  It really is true:  guns don't kill people…

But I disagree with anyone who says that removing gun control laws will protect anyone.  There was a big editorial from a student who has a gun license, but still can't bring his gun on campus, and in his words:

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.

It was at the moment you were safe behind legions of heavily armed police that you felt the most helpless?  More:

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.

I hate this argument.  I think its stupid to make decisions, especially when they mean breaking the regulations, on whether or not you get caught in that one in a million situation where you might actually make some use of it.  Interesting to note:  this individual was ushered out of the building from another classroom and was well behind police lines before he even knew what was going on.  Never saw the gunman.  And this guy's licensed gun would have solved what exactly?

He goes on to argue that law abiding citizens who are trained and licensed to carry guns should be able to use them and are a threat to no one.  I would agree with that.  Look at all the incidents where some loony pulled a gun in a public place and you'll probably find that he wasn't licensed to use it.  The kids at Columbine certainly weren't. 

But I wonder if anyone can recall the last time someone pulled a gun out in a public place and started shooting, and was cut down by a citizen with a licensed and concealed handgun.  Anyone?  This also brings up a hornet's nest about citizen vigilantism.  I wouldn't mind someone bringing out a gun in this circumstance, but when should you not bring one out?  Would even a trained citizen know when to bring it out and when to keep it tucked away?

Overall, I think that the school ordinances were dumb.  Obviously they're ineffective.  You keep the law abiding gun owner's guns away, but not the whackos.  They could have at least armed the security guards.

Needless to say, the numbers on both sides have apparently been dubious.