Monday, April 16, 2007

 

47 Hokeys Down, and Counting

You'd think with my interest in guns and justice, and my fierce loyalty to my home state of Virginia, that I would be all excited about writing about the tragedy of today--the school shooting at VPI in Blacksburg, just west of the center of the state. But I'm not.

We talked it all out about the Columbine mass murder, just southwest of the basement I'm typing in, nearly 8 years ago. We've done little to nothing to stop school shootings since Columbine. We'll do nothing substantive to stop them in the future.

Well-trained teachers and staff carrying concealed handguns would be an obvious imperfect, but largely effective, solution; but pigs will fly before that happens.

The only thing I'm interested in learning is the religion of the shooter. If he's not a Muslim, the rest of the story will have the allure of a soap opera, which is to say, no allure at all.

UPDATE: I do hope the wounded all fully recover and that the families and friends of the dead can somehow find some comfort for this horrible crime out of the blue. I felt that before, but failed to say it. Honest.

There have been horrible school shootings all over the world--Scotland, Russia, Germany, Argentina, Canada--as well as here and there in the United States; there were two in the past 8 years here in Colorado. Schools are almost universally gun free zones. When is the last time there was a mass shooting at a gun show, which are the opposite of gun free zones because there are thousands of guns just laying around on tables, and mounds of ammunition nearby? How about never. Wonder why that is?

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Comments:
Rog,

I have never attended a gun show and I know you have so my question is merely could a person bent on self destruction and armed w/ the right weapon enter a gun show and kill bteween one (Baily) and Thirty (Va Tech--not thirty-two b/c there were two shootings) before the people at the show killed him?

If so, what's your point?

T
 
If it's the availability of guns that causes gun crime, then why do the places where guns are banned (like in DC and at schools) have either high rates of, or periodic but awful, gun violence, while places with mounds of guns and ammo have none? I think the gun dealers would return fire in about 10 seconds, so that's how much time the self destructive type would have. My best guess would be two fatalities and four wounded before he was shot to death. That's my point. But there are no mass killings at gun shows because the mere availability of guns and ammo does not cause gun violence.
 
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